Band of Brothers
by tears-in-rain
Summary: As the evil of Shadow Haunt threatens to engulf the rest of the universe, the specialists of Red Fountain must bond together to survive new obstacles, aid the Winx Club and pass their junior year. Sequel to Brothers at Arms
1. Back to School

_Okay, it's taken me a year and you've all been very patient, but I'm finally ready to post the sequel to my fiction 'Brothers at Arms'. This next installment, 'Band of Brothers', takes place during the second season of the Winx Club when the boys are in their junior year. Like in Brothers at Arms, I'm following the 4Kids episodes and using their exact dialogue, with of course my own little additions. Sorry that it's taken me so long, but there was a lot of material to get through, and that was even before I added my own story lines. The mission to Shadow Haunt to rescue the pixies felt like a mini story all in itself. Too give you a bit of insight into the amount of work I put into this, according to Microsoft Word, Brothers at Arms consisted over just over four hundred pages while Band of Brothers is in excess of five hundred pages, and that's not even counting the bit in the middle that I'm revising since I think it could be better, so that's why I really haven't written any new stories in the last year._

_I tried publishing this story before but for some reason the site didn't add it with the rest of the Winx Club stories so I had to try publishing it again. _

_But __anyways, hope you enjoy it and just remember, I own nothing but my computer. Cheers!_

* * *

**Chapter One – Back to School **

The fortress of Red Fountain, which a year ago had stood tall and mighty, now lay in ruins as Sky made his way through the great, crimson gates. The once majestic academy was not the same school Sky had first laid his blue eyes on two years ago. Her cream walls had large cracks in the foundations and were dull in the morning sunlight. The crimson roof had collapsed in places and the schools banner hung limply from its flag pole. The fortress had stood for over three hundred years, and now it was falling to pieces. The Trix Sisters attack at the end of last year had destroyed the school for heroics and bravery, and every time Sky regarded the carnage he felt a constricting pain in his chest. For the last two year that school had been his home – even more so than the royal palace back on Eraklyon – and now it looked beyond repair.

With a toss of his head, Sky flicked his blonde hair out of his eyes and crossed the front courtyard of the school but did not head for the front doors. Instead, he headed around the side of the school and made his way towards the back of the building to where the student quarters were. Most of the school had been deemed uninhabitable and as a safety precaution the only parts of the school that the students were allowed in were the cafeteria, a few classrooms and one wing of the dorms, which Sky room was fortunately a part of. The rest of the school was living out of tents at the back of the school which most students were quickly getting tired of. Red Fountain had once again opened its gates early since most students had to travel across the universe, and it gave the students a chance to settle in and catch up with old friends before their lessons started. Sky had arrived a few hours ago with his best friend Brandon, but as soon as he had dumped his luggage in his room the prince had gone off on a walk around the campus to stretch his legs. That flight from Eraklyon had made his legs extremely stiff.

Stepping through the entrance to the livable dorms, Sky quickly found his dorm room. Their dorm was exactly the same as last year, which meant that it was fairly large and made up to cater for three people. Their rooms weren't quite as spacious as the ones at Alfea, but it wasn't like they were living in a shoe box. The only difference between their room now and the start of last year – asides from the fact that it was now down one of its occupants – was that it now had several large cracks in the walls from the witches' attack on the school. But apparently there wasn't a risk of the roof collapsing other wise Headmaster Saladin would not have let them sleep there. Sky's luggage still lay unpacked on his bed and Brandon had set to work unpacking his own. And he wasn't alone in the room.

"Timmy! When did you get here?" Sky grinned earnestly, pulling the smaller boy into a brotherly bear hug.

"About half an hour ago," Timmy answered, adjusting his glasses when Sky released him from his embrace. Timmy may look like the stereotypical nerd, but Sky knew for a fact that his slim friend could not only beat every single person in their class in theory work, but he could also hold his own in a battle situation as well.

"He showed up a few minutes after you left to go on your little walk," Brandon smirked, rubbing Timmy's orangey-blonde hair and making it stick out in all different directions. "I told him that you heard he was coming and bolted for it but from some reason he didn't believe me."

"No one believes anything you say since that field trip to the Realm of Frost in freshmen year when you told us that you could fire a flare after we got lost," Sky reminded his best friend.

"Hey, they found us didn't they?"

"Yeah, after we almost got completely crushed by that mob of frost giants that you angered when you shot the flare right into the center of them."

"Well things always look bad when you focus on the negative."

"Anyway, how was your summer?" Sky asked Timmy, trying to direct the conversation way from such pleasant reminiscing. But before Timmy could answer, Brandon cut in.

"Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answer?" Brandon asked, collapsing down onto his now relatively clear bed. "He spent all his free time fiddling with his computer."

"Actually it was the squad ship and the only reason I spent so much time on it was because we had all my family over at my house for two weeks and the only way to avoid hanging out with my cousin is to submerge myself in some advance mechanics since he gets confused programming the microwave," Timmy explained to his two roommates as he went back to unpacking his stuff.

"Are you sure that you share the same DNA as that guy?" Brandon asked.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Wait a minute," Sky interrupted the conversation. "They let you take the squad ship home?"

"Well yeah because the hanger was damaged during the Great Witch Invasion so a lot of the ships would have spent the summer left out in the elements. Since my dad has a small hanger at the back of our yard where he builds his inventions, I offered to house our ship over the summer," Timmy said.

"So while I was suffering in overcrowded space shuttle you were flying home in the comfort of our squad ship?" Sky asked with an un-amused expression.

"Dude, we were flying first class," Brandon reminded his prince before Timmy had a chance to answer.

"But that doesn't change the fact that I find the squad ship more comfortable and spacious."

"You are such a spoiled brat some times."

"I am not!" Sky snapped, but something about his face made Brandon laugh out loud.

"You look like a three year old pouting like that."

"Brandon, leave Sky alone," Timmy ordered.

"Yes mother," Brandon smirked.

Before Sky had a chance to call Brandon a name and before Timmy could scold the two of them, the door to their room suddenly burst open and a boy sauntered into their dorm without knocking. Not waiting to be invited in, the teenager slumped into Brandon work chair and propped his feet on the desk before turning his full attention onto the file he had in his hand. He appeared to be completely ignoring the other boys in the room until, without looking up from the file, he said, "I told you I'd be able to get my hands on the plans for the new school."

"Hi Riven, great to see you too," Brandon replied to the non existing greeting. "Yes, I had a great summer, thanks for asking. Why don't you come in and defile my work desk with your filthy shoes? That's it. Make yourself at home."

"What do you mean you got the plans for the new school?" Sky demanded, ignoring Brandon's ranting.

"Well actually it's not all of the plans. This file seems to just be the designs for the dorms and by the looks of it they're going to be a big, cylinder shaped tower," Riven informed them all as he flipped through the file.

Last year, Riven got messed up with the Trix Sisters and as a result, screwed up his life royally, almost to the point where they were going to expel him from Red Fountain. But after a little research from Timmy and a bit of mind reading from Saladin, they were able to determine that Riven behaviour over his sophomore year was a direct result of a spell that one of the Trix Sisters placed on him, making him more a victim than a culprit. But that didn't instantly erase the poor grades Riven had accumulated over the months that he was with the witches' as well as his record for tardiness, skipping classes, breaking curfew, disobeying teachers direct orders, smoking and drinking on school grounds as well as several other infractions of the school rules. As a result, Riven had arrived back at Red Fountain a week earlier than the rest of his friends to discuss with his teachers what he needed to do in order to remain a student at Red Fountain. Part of his conditions was that he had to maintain a grade average of at least eighty percent, have a ninety percent attendance record for all his classes as well as zero tolerance for any major rule infractions.

But after a week of living in a tent while waiting for the rest of the school and his friends to show up, Riven had gotten bored and decided tempt the zero tolerance policy in order to keep himself entertained. His objective; uncover as much information on the new designs for Red Fountain as possible, and file was proof that he had succeeded to some degree.

Sky, however was not impressed. "Riven, what are you doing? I know for a fact that those files are being kept under lock and key in Saladin's office so don't try and lie your way out of this one."

"Okay, I won't," Riven promised and then fell silent as he continued flipping through the file. Sky tried to glare Riven into admitting he was wrong or at least feel a bit of regret for breaking and entering his headmaster office, but Sky's patience wore out long before Riven's conscious kicked in.

"Riven! You almost didn't get let back into Red Fountain because of all the trouble you got mixed up in last year, and the school year hasn't even officially started yet and you're already breaking the rules! Are you trying to get yourself kicked out? You're on a zero tolerance probation, Riven! Don't screw up this second chance that Saladin's given you!"

"I won't now quit your naggin'," Riven told him, his eyes fixed on the papers in front of him. "Besides, don't you want to know ahead of time that you've been moved into a room with Justin and Marcus?"

"_What?!"_ Sky examined in horror, leaping over to look at the papers in Riven's hands. But instead of seeing the names of the two people he hated most in his grade, Sky saw that he was to be rooming with Brandon and Timmy as usual. Panic turned to relief and then quickly shifted into annoyance. Sky didn't even bother with scolding Riven. Instead, he just hit his friend sharply over the head and then returned to his unpacking. He didn't look back at his friend, but knew that he was no doubt smirking. Another thing Sky knew was that his two other friends were currently torn between trying to be as morally just as the prince and curiosity to see what part of their new school was going to look like. "Oh, just look at it already," Sky told them in an irritated tone, but Timmy and Brandon paid no attention to it and scurried to peer over Riven's shoulder at the file.

"Hey it is a tower," Brandon noted. "And look, we're right next to one of the spare rooms that have been left for VIP's. That's pretty cool. And you're not far from us, Riv, and you're with Bourne and Kane again."

"Unfortunately," Riven grumbled. There wasn't a person at Red Fountain that didn't like Bourne, but Riven and Kane were known to knock heads ever now and then. The two red heads just did not like each other.

"The design's all wrong," Timmy suddenly said, his eyebrows narrowed in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Brandon asked, unable to see the fault.

"Well look at it," Timmy said, pointing to the lower levels of the dorm building. "The levels get smaller the lower you go. It would be impossible for a building to support itself with such a structure. The foundations just aren't big enough to hold up the upper levels given their size. It's too top heavy and would over balance its self."

"Huh. That is odd. Are you holding the blue print the right way, Riv?"

"Yeah," Riven answered in a slightly insulted tone.

"Then how are they going to do that?"

"Well, we'll find out in a fortnight when the new Red Fountain has its official reopening," Sky reminded them all. "Although, I haven't seen any proof that they've done anything to this place over the summer."

"Saladin loves astounding people and I guess he didn't want us to be left out of the surprise," Timmy shrugged.

"Yeah, do we know anyone by the name of Helia?" Riven asked, suddenly shifting the topic of conversation.

"Nope," Brandon answered as Sky and Timmy shook their heads. "Why?"

"Because he's coming here in a week as a VIP and he's going to be staying in the room right next to yours," Riven told them as he flipped through the file. "Saladin must think that you'll be good neighbours and represent the school well."

"Well, we'll deal with that later. But right now I say that we ignore the unpacking that needs to be done and head over to Alfea before the start of year mixer starts and catch up with the girls!" Brandon suggested enthusiastically. "I have been kept from my lady love for far too long and I shall not stand to be parted from her any longer!"

"Oh god," Riven groaned, but he closed the file and removed his feet from the desk which was a clear sign that he was willing to go without much argument. Sky couldn't help but frown slightly. Normally Riven would argue for a few minutes – even when he wanted to go – just for the sake of arguing. And even though there were times when Sky wished that Riven wouldn't argue every decision made, Sky couldn't help but feel unsettled by a cooperative Riven.

"I'm up for it," Timmy grinned, excited about the chance to speak with Tecna face to face for the first time since school ended. The pair had kept in contact over summer via email and live internet chat sites, but nothing compared to looking into those turquoise eyes that made Timmy's knees go weak in person. "We can take the squad ship so I can show Tecna all the upgrades I've installed in it over the summer."

"The squad ship?" Brandon hissed through his teeth. "Oh, I dunno. Arrive on the squad ship really doesn't fit with what I've visualized meeting Stella for the first time to be like. I was thinking levi bikes because not only are they very masculine but they also could stand symbolically for that whole riding up on a valiant steed kinda thing."

"You know, if you put the same amount of time and thought that you have for impressing Stella into your school work, you may have gotten a better grade in Battle History last year," Sky pointed out, but he was already looking for his levi bike keys. His mother had never really approved of his delight in levi bike racing and as a result she had tried to discourage him riding while on Eraklyon, so it had been a while since Sky had had a good, fast ride. And he wanted to make it something worth the wait. "Timmy and Riven take the squad ship while you and me take our levi bikes to Alfea."

"Done," Brandon instantly answered for everyone. "And how 'bout we make it interesting? Say, loser does the winners chores for a week?"

"Deal," Sky grinned.

"Oh no. I'm getting in one this," Riven told them and everyone got the message that there was no room to argue his decision. "You can fly the squad ship on your own, right Timmy?"

"Sure. I flew it all the way from Windox and at least this time I'm not breaking through any atmosphere," Timmy reminded them all. "And then you guys can catch a lift back to Red Fountain with me when the party finishes if you're too tired or overloaded on party food to drive back."

"Sounds like a plan," Brandon grinned, almost bubbling over with excitement to see his girl. "Winx Club, here we come!"

* * *

Alfea was just one enchanted forest away from Red Fountain, but an old treaty signed with the dryads of the forest decades before Alfea was even built prevented any roads being built through the forest apart from one old hunting trail that winded through the ancient trees. The road had gradually gotten wider after centuries of use, but it still wasn't a very direct line between the school for heroics and bravery and the school of fairies. And even though it had been countless decades since anyone had seen the dryads after they had hidden themselves away to tend to their sacred groves, no one dared to cut down their beloved trees.

Not that the boys really minded. While some times the road was annoying to travel along – especially if you were late for a date with one of the fairies – most of the time the boys took delight in racing their levi bikes through the ancient forest at recklessly fast speeds. There was an actual speed limit for the road, but none of the students obeyed it. Red Fountain had taught them in freshmen year how to control a bike traveling at such speeds, so there was yet to be a serious accident on the road between Alfea and Red Fountain.

Riven – who had no place to go home to during the summer – once again spent his holidays at a summer camp. Only the mot recent summer camp had been one he had really been looking forward to; levi bike camp. Riven was already pretty talented in that particular sport, but the camp had given him a whole heap of hints that he have never even heard of. He had spent a good many hours in the week he spent at Red Fountain before the rest of guys arrived to modify his bike, and he knew that there was no way Brandon and Sky's bikes could match his now. But even through his bike could out strip theirs easily, Riven kept behind the other two racers, biding his time. It was an amateur mistake to rush out too fast since it was hard to hold a lead. A better choice would to be to stick with the front pack and then choose the right moment to break through to win.

Which was exactly what Riven did.

"Oh, no! It was so close!" Stella's high pitched voice complained loudly as Sky pulling into second place and Brandon finished up in third. All five members of the Winx Club had been waiting for them at the gates of Alfea since the boys had messaged ahead to tell them that they'd be arriving for the start of year mixer early.

"And Riven wins," Flora noted in that sweet voice of hers.

"Well, Riven went to levi bike camp this summer," Musa laughed.

Brandon didn't care in the slightest that he had finished last in the race. Removing helmet, he quickly locked his eyes on the beautiful honey coloured ones of the gorgeous Princess Stella and instantly drowned in them. He had been smitten with the fairy of the Sun and the Moon from the second he had met her and as of last year they were officially an item. There had been a few rough patches along the way – mainly due to the fact that Sky and Brandon had switched identities at the start of freshmen year which everyone discovered at Red Fountain's Day of the Royals – but they had survived past that as well as the Army of Decay to the point where they had talked every day on the phone over the summer break and Brandon had racked up a phone bill of a couple hundred dollars. Brandon's dad had freaked over it and was making Brandon pay it all back to him, but Brandon would do it all again if given half the chance. "Hey."

"Nice to finally talk face to face," Stella said softly, giving him a coy little look.

"I won," Riven smirked viciously. "Looks like you guys are gonna have to do all my chores this week. Yeah!"

"Okay," Sky sighed. Why did he agree to that bet? But then he saw something that pushed all his bad feelings out of his mind. Luscious red hair shone brightly in the mid morning sun and fell freely though slightly restrained by a head band. Perfect, pale skin glowed save for cheeks that were tinted with a rose colour. A pelted blue skirt exposed a set of stunning legs and a pair to breathtakingly beautiful blue eyes glowed as they regarded him. All these things put together formed the last Princess of Sparx and the earth girl that had completely charmed him; Bloom.

"Sky, how was your summer?" Bloom asked him and just hearing her say his name was enough to make his pulse quicken.

"It would have been better if I could've seen you," he told her sincerely, taking her hand in his. Summer seemed dull compare to the times he was with her and the days had dragged until it was time for him to return to Magix. It was probably the first time in his entire schooling career that Sky had looked forward to the summer holidays ending. "You're even more beautiful than I remembered."

Bloom smiled bashfully which in turn caused Sky's grinned to widen. He loved knowing that he affected her in the exact same way that she did to him. Suddenly a shadow fell over her and she broke eye contact to look up at what was obstructing the sun. "Huh?"

"That's Timmy" Sky told her. "He upgraded the squad ship over the summer."

"He made some significant modifications," Tecna said as she regarded the craft. It swung around and leveled itself out to hover in mid air over the group of teenagers so they could all get a good look at it. "He wrote me a letter with all the details. Very nice."

Timmy had been watching them over the ship monitors so he had overheard everything Tecna had said. He and Tecna had never really officially established what their relationship was, but Timmy knew that he was attracted to her and he had a suspicion that she fancied him too. With the ship left on auto pilot, Timmy opened the hatch and hung out of it to wave at the group below. "Hey Tecna. How's it going?"

"The squad ship looks great!" Tecna shouted back to him, and the smile on Timmy's face widened.

"I have to admit, I missed you honey bunny," Stella gushed to Brandon, though he had already knew it. At the start of summer he hadn't even made it back to Eraklyon and he had received a text message off her claiming she missed him.

But none the less, Brandon smiled at her words. "I missed you more cupcake."

Riven felt nauseous at his friends gushy comments, but instead of making some snide remark about it like he normally would, he choose to bite his tongue and not say anything. While he was hanging with the Trix Sisters, he had done some pretty horrible things to his friends – not all of them they were aware of – and although they had told him enough times that they had forgiven him, Riven couldn't seem to forget about what he had done. The bottom line was that he knew he didn't deserve their friendship, especially after the way he had acted last year. Therefore, Riven was trying his hardest not to be as difficult as he normally was and wasn't picking fights like he had always done before. He had his defenses up again, and he had no plans of lowering them again.

But he knew that if there was going to be one person to break through his defenses, it was probably going to be annoyingly cheerful and unnaturally adorable Princess Musa. That blue eyed pixie had caught his attention from the moment he had first laid eyes on her, and he was trying his hardest to avoid falling deeper into her spell. Not that she ever used any magic on him, which troubled him even more. Her natural body and personality had ensnared him and try as he might, he just could break free of the invisible bonds that shackled him to her.

"Hey Riven," Musa greeted casually as the group made its way over to the steps to catch up on what had happened over their summer breaks. Timmy was going to land the squad ship and join them.

"Hey," Riven replied gruffly, shying away from her like a spooked horse. He was willing to admit – though only to himself – that she sacred the living daylights out of him, but it had nothing to do with the musical power she possessed. Musa didn't say anything to him after that. She didn't need too. Her eyes shone merrily and soft smile tugged at her lips, and Riven had an almost overwhelming desire to taste them. Smothering such urges, Riven forced himself to do something he'd never thought he'd do; put all his attention on Stella as she talked about the fashion intern she had done over the summer.

Sky listened to Stella go on about the last fashion trends and rules that she expected them all to abide by for a couple of minutes before he noticed that it looked like Bloom was off in her own little world. She was sitting some distance away from the group on the steps and her beautiful face seemed troubled. Stella was explaining the latest rules for high heels – a topic Sky figured he really didn't need to know about – when Sky moved away from the group and approached Bloom. "You're really quiet Bloom. Are you okay?"

Bloom bit her lip for half a second before she finally decided to ask him about something that had been bothering her for weeks now. "I wasn't going to say anything but . . ." Bloom hesitated. "Well, I read this article that you were seen conoudoling with Diaspro over the summer."

Sky mentally cursed the name of his former fiancée. He had managed to convince his father to let him call off his arranged marriage to her last year to give the young prince a chance to follow his own heart, but apparently the Princess of Quartz still managed to drive a wall between Sky and the fairy that he was completely smitten with.

"Our families' vacation was on the same island but I didn't hang out with her," Sky assured her, but that wasn't because of Diaspro's lack of trying. Diaspro had never seemed to have had any true feelings for Sky, but as a matter of principle she wasn't going to give up on him that easily. A solid alliance with Eraklyon was just too attractive for her to pass up, so she had tried her very best to ensnare Sky over the summer break. Luckily, Sky's family's beach house was on the other side of the island and backed right onto a rainforest which Sky could easily slip into and vanish thanks to the skills that Red Fountain had taught him.

A small amount of relief crept into Bloom's face, but she still looked a tad skeptical. "So you're sure there was no conoudling, right?"

Sky couldn't suppress a smile. If she was that worried, that must mean that she really liked him. "There was one canoe trip but there was no conoudoling."

"Oh well what a relief," Bloom sighed, and a bit of colour instantly entered her cheeks when she realized how much she had exposed to him. She quickly tried to cover her tracks. "I mean, that's cool 'cause it's not like it matters to me. Uh, you can do what you want. I mean, I know we're just friends."

Another smile spread across Sky's face, though this one was slightly slyer than the one before it. "Well I hope we're more than just friends."

"Oh," was all Bloom could seem to say and she giggled bashfully.

"After all, not every girl can get me longing for school to start like you did to me this summer," Sky told her, reaching over and cupping her chin with his right hand. He loved how smooth her skin felt under his calloused fingers.

"Really?" Bloom asked. It probably wasn't the most intelligent or the most relevant response, but it was all she could come up with under the tender stare of the prince.

"Yeah, and you know what else?" Sky said, leaning forward slightly. "As soon as I rode up to the gates of Alfea I knew that I was right to look forward to the new school year so eagerly."

"Oh," Bloom said again as Sky leaned closer to kiss her gently on the cheek. It wasn't exactly the kiss he had been dreaming of giving her all summer, but he had the rest of the mixer to get to that. Right now, he figured it would be best if he was somewhat reserved and chaste with her. He knew for a fact that she had never had a boyfriend on Earth and he was not going to scare her off by being to forward with her. And from the looks of it, she didn't dislike the affectionate contact he had given her. In fact, it appeared that she too wanted it to be more than it was. "I kinda wanted summer to finish sooner, too."

* * *

"I believe style is change," Stella informed the others while Sky and Bloom's attention remained totally focused on each other. "Change is good. Hint, hint Riven."

The others laughed, but Riven wasn't amused by her little dig at him. It was no secret that Riven and Stella didn't have the most conventional form of friendship. In fact, it was a bit of a stretch to even call it a friendship. Stella didn't like Riven's attitude and she in turn got on his nerves. But if either of them were looking for someone to pick a fight with and get their anger out on, both of them were more than willing to comply to the others needs. They had had some splendid little fights over the few years they had known each other and had provided their friends with a rather intriguing form of entertainment since human beings as a species seem to be fascinated by conflict (1). But today, Riven didn't feel like taking the bait she had so clearly laid out for him. Putting his face in palm of his hand, Riven simply mumbled, "Funny"

A flash of disappointment went across Stella's face at Riven lack of attempt to engage her in verbal battle, so she decided to take another stab at it. "I mean, look at Timmy. He looks so much better in his new sweatshirt."

Riven didn't take that bait either, and Timmy felt the need to give credit to the deserving person since he himself wasn't the best when it came to choosing the most fashionable attire. "Well, Tecna picked it out and sent it too me this summer."

Tecna smiled at his subtle compliment. "Yeah."

Stella – realizing that she was not going to get a fight out of Riven – decided to try another one of her complaints that always seemed to draw a confrontation. "One small change can make a world of difference, Musa."

"I am not gonna changing my pig tails," Musa told her firmly but without any heat. "They were all the rage at Wizard-pa-looza."

"But they make you look like you're eight years old," Stella told her in a stuffy tone of voice.

Musa's shoulders hunched slightly, making her look rather insecure, but her voice was strong and even when she said, "It's my thing and I'm stickin' with it. Besides, we'll eventually get to the age when we'll _want_ to look younger."

"Yeah, but that's years away. I'm taking about right now, Musa. Honestly, sometimes I don't know what to do with you," Stella sighed tragically before moving onto some other fashion rule that she had picked up over the summer so she didn't notice that Musa's shoulders remained hunched or that her navy eyes were downcast. The musical princess, who always seemed to speak her own mind and add her own opinion to a discussion, didn't contribute to the conversation from that point onwards.

Stella may not have noticed this, but Riven and Brandon did. Both knew that Musa liked to put up a tough front and act like nothing fazed her, but they also knew that in actual fact she was probably the most emotionally sensitive and vulnerable out of all the members of the Winx Club. She had a habit of putting her whole heart into things, which wasn't always a bad thing, but when things didn't work out it absolutely crushed her. Stella's unintentionally harsh words had cut her deeply.

"Hey guys," an Alfea fairy by the name of Priscilla called out to the group. "Ms. Faragonda's called an assembly in the quad before the party starts. Come on!"

With an excited little squeal, Stella bounded of towards the quad and the rest of the group followed. Hesitantly, Riven moved until he was walking along side Musa, who still looked pretty down. Shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans, Riven stared fiercely at the ground as he muttered, "I don't think you're pig tails look bad."

Musa looked up at him, but Riven kept his eyes firmly fixed on the ground. He could feel her eyes him, however, and for some reason that made the palms of his hands start to sweat. "You don't?"

"Nah," Riven said, shifting his shoulders. "Stella's just being a brat."

Musa chuckled softly. "She does get like that sometimes."

"Sometimes? Please. She was born a bitch," Riven told her. He didn't think there was anything wrong with that statement – after all, he did believe it to be true – but for some reason Musa took great offence to it. Her navy eyes went flat and narrowed dangerously, and her smile became an un-amused straight line.

"She is not a bitch and I don't appreciate people calling her that" Musa said stiffly. "Especially people who are supposed to be her friend."

"Me friends with Stella? C'mon, you know that's not true. I could never be friends with a spoiled . . ." Riven started, but trailed off when he realized that he was just digging his own grave.

"Spoiled what, Riven?" Musa snapped, her eyes blazing. "Spoiled little princess? Did you forget that I'm a princess too, Riven? Huh?"

"I – "

"You know what? Stella's right. Style is change, and unfortunately you are never going to be stylish because you will never change from the self centered, chauvinist, arrogant prick that you are!" Musa spat at him, before storming away from him.

Riven, however, was left completely dumbfounded. What the hell just happened? One minute she was laughing and the next she was ripping into him. What the hell? Women! Riven would have made more sense out of Timmy when he was talking his computer jargon. Furious, Riven stalked over to stand with Sky, Timmy and Brandon, the latter of which had been watching the whole thing.

Brandon felt sorry for Musa since he and her got along very well, but he couldn't help but grin as Riven made his way over to them. "I've gotta hand it to you man," Brandon smirked. "Even when you complement a girl you somehow manage to offend her."

"You think this is funny?" Riven asked, his face like a thunder cloud. "Well, do you wonna know what I think is funny? Stabbing squires."

"You sadist you."

"Guys! Quiet! Ms. Faragonda's talking," Sky hissed, and the two boys fell silent though Riven still continued to death glare Brandon who was grinning at him like a maniac.

Ms. Faragonda was one of those old ladies who looked like a strong breeze could take her out, but as the boys witnessed last year when the Trix Sisters attacked with the dreaded Army of Decay, that fragile looking geriatric was more than capable of holding her own in a battle. The fairies of Alfea all adored her and the boys of Red Fountain all respected her wisdom and knowledge. There was still no word on what the witches of Cloud Tower thought of her.

"Fairies of Alfea and heroes of Red Fountain, I would like to welcome you all back to Alfea and back to the school year. I hope you all use this year to your fullest potential," Ms. Faragonda said to the assembly from her place on the school steps. "And I would also like to say thank you for coming to our back to school mixer. What a great start to the year."

"All we did was show up," Riven growled as everyone else clapped. "What's so great about that?"

"Oh, lighten up, Riven. She's just trying to be welcoming," Sky told him calmly, but the burgundy haired specialist continued to look pissy.

"After last years witch invasion the school had to under go major remodeling," Ms. Faragonda continue. "In a moment we will unveil the new wing which we've named in honour of a very brave fairy. We would not be here without her. Bloom, my dear, would you please join me up here."

Bloom's eyes widened. "Me?"

"What are you waiting for?" Musa asked, giving her a push. "Go take a bow."

"Hold on a second," Stella stopped her. The blonde princess quickly removed the headband that was holding back Bloom's luscious red hair and then stepped back to view the final result. "Perfect. Now stand up straight and remember to smile. Your smile is your most outstanding feature."

"You girls all have to come up there with me," Bloom told the rest of the Winx Club. "We all beat the witches together."

"You sure?"

"Come on. Let's do it Winx Club!" Bloom cheered before heading up onto the step with Ms. Faragonda and the other teachers. After a moments hesitation, the rest of her friends followed her.

"Here," Stella said as she handed Bloom's headband off to another fairy. "I'm needed."

"Weren't there three schools involved in the defeat of the Army of Decay and the Trix Sisters not just five freshmen fairies?" Riven snarled.

"Stop it, Riven," Timmy ordered. "You know perfectly well that we wouldn't have won if it hadn't been for Bloom and the rest of the Winx Club. Now stop being such a sour puss."

"Sour puss?" Brandon repeated with a grin. "I haven't heard that one in years. I'm gonna use that."

"And now let's unveil our new Dragon Fire wing!" Ms. Faragonda said proudly and the assembly applauded again. "Release the magic doves!"

Last year, some of the rot monsters that belonged to the Army of Decay had gotten bored with beating up high school students and had set to work in destroying the halls of Alfea. Upon arrival at the girls school, everyone had noticed that the parts of the school that had been ruined were covered by what they all thought was a large, magical cloak but in actual fact they turned out to be hundreds of tiny, magical doves. Upon Ms. Faragonda's command, the doves all flew away from the tower they were covering and revealed the new wing named in honour of Bloom and her powers. In the sky, fire works exploded, signaling the start of the party.

"If building a new tower is considered 'major remodeling' in Ms. Faragonda's books, I wonder what she thinks of what they're going to do to Red Fountain as," Brandon pondered, speaking aloud what a lot of the guys' thought. "Oh well. Not like it matters. Let's party!"

* * *

The start of year mixer was different to the others start of school year social events in that instead of being held at night which is what they normally did, they had it during the day which made it feel like on massive barbeque. Maestro, the chef from Alfea, teamed up with his little brother and chef from Red Fountain, Jacob, to give the students the choice of not only filling up on party snacks but also gorge themselves on food that one might find in a high quality restaurant. Many of the students devoured both types of food with equal enthusiasm and stuffed themselves to the point where they felt physically ill.

Another difference with the mixer was that for the first time in Alfea history, a witch and an ogre had been invited to the festivities.

While she was at Cloud Tower, the witch Mirta had never really fitted in and the other witches tended to avoid her due to her sweet personality, which of course made her easy prey from bullies, particularly the Trix Sisters. At one stage Icy had even transformed her into a pumpkin which was how Mirta had lived out most of her freshmen year until Flora could figurer out a way to break Icy's spell. But now she had transferred to Alfea as an exchange student and while there were a few fairies – mainly those from the older grades – who still acted hostile to her, a lot of the fairies of Alfea had come to accept that Mirta was not like most witches and that it was time to put an end to this continuous witch verse fairy battle that had plagued society for centuries.

The ogre Knut, who was now Alfea's groundskeeper, however, was not one that the girls would embrace so easily, but that was mostly because of his body odor. He had improved a lot in the smell department over the summer, but he still reeked.

"This mixer's awesome," Sky said to Brandon as he stretched himself out in his chair. After a summer of sitting up formally and respectfully like any prince his age was expected to, it was great to just slouch for once.

"Yeah, Lady would have loved it," Brandon noted sadly as he looked down at all the food that had somehow managed to find its way onto the ground. Lady – a little cream coloured dog that Sky, Brandon, Timmy and Riven had taken off the streets and made into their pet – would have been more than happy to help clean Alfea by eating up all that food. But along with the new campus that was yet to be unveiled, Red Fountain had made a few changes to the school rules over the summer. With the exception of a few members of the dragon riding club, pets would no longer be allowed at Red Fountain so Brandon and Sky were forced to leave Lady with Brandon's family over the school year so she could at least be taken care of by Brandon's little brother Will.

"She'll be alright, bro," Sky assured Brandon. "Will promised to look after her."

"But it's not the same," the squire whined. "She was our mascot."

"Well, now she can be the mascot for the Eraklyon Boys Junior High."

"I don't want her to be the mascot for the Eraklyon Boys Junior High. She was the mascot for Red Fountain and . . . and . . . Oh, I don't know! The Super Squad."

"Super Squad?" Sky repeated in horror. They were _not_ calling their squad that.

"I couldn't think of anything," Brandon shrugged sheepishly.

"Yeah, it shows."

"What did I tell you about naming our squad, Brandon?" Riven asked, climbing over the table in order to take a seat along side the squire.

"That you'd be forced to kill me with your bare hands if I ever did (2)," Brandon mumbled as Riven took a swig from his can of soft drink. Brandon breathed deep and a familiar scent filled his senses. "You haven't been smoking now have you?"

"Nah, Lex was while I was talking to him," Riven replied calmly, but Brandon had a suspicion that his friend might be lying to him. Unfortunately, it was next to impossible to tell whenever Riven wasn't telling the truth or not since the guy was one damn good lair.

"I thought you were quitting."

"I am, I am," Riven assured him, though in actual fact he was finding it a lot harder to give up the smokes than he had originally thought it would be. Lady Nicotine had gotten her claws into the teen deep, and it was getting more and more difficult to get them out with each passing day. "Just get off my back about it."

"It's a bad habit."

"I know."

"You should have never picked it up in the first place."

"Brandon, shut the fu – "

"Alright guys. That's enough of that," Sky interrupted the little fight before it escalated. The school year hadn't even started and Brandon and Riven were already at it. "Brandon, leave Riven alone. Riven, calm down. This is supposed to be a party, so why don't you guys go have some fun. Brandon, go find Stella and spend some time with her and Riven, you can go see if Musa's talking to you yet."

"She's not," Riven answered.

"Well, Stella's still talking to me, so if you'd excuse me boys," Brandon said, getting up and leaving the two of them before they could reply. Running a hand through his fringe as he walked, Brandon snuck up behind the Princess of Solaria as she was handing out a few fashion tips to a bunch of new Alfea freshmen's. Wrapping one arm wound her waist from behind, Brandon pulled aside her lovely, long blonde hair with the other and tenderly kissed the back of her neck. He felt her shiver at the contact, and when she twisted around to look at him, her honey eyes were glowing with delight. "Hey there, princess."

"Hey there," Stella said coyly. "What are you up too?"

"Seeing what the most gorgeous girl in Magix is doing without me."

"Just in Magix?"

"Did I just say Magix? I meant the whole universe."

"Oh, you're sweet." Stella smiled proudly, playing with his hair in a very affectionate and intermit manner. "How'd I ever find such a catch like you?"

"Oh, you're just lucky I guess," Brandon grinned, then he suddenly remembered something had had been dying to ask her all summer. It was something he wanted to do in person, and this was the perfect time to do it. "Hey, Stella, do you wonna take a walk with me so we can talk a bit in private?"

"Not at all," Stella said, linking her arm through his when he offered it to her. "Lead the way, honey bear."

Brandon led Stella to one of the more secluded wishing wells Alfea had on offer. It was actually the same well that Sky had talked with Bloom privately beside during last years' prom, but Brandon didn't know that. He also didn't know exactly why a school needed more than one wishing well, but he really didn't care at the moment. There was hardly anyone around and he had the girl of his dreams with him.

"Did I tell you how amazing you look in that outfit?" Brandon asked her even though he knew for a fact that he had but he aslo knew exactly how to charm the princess.

"Oh, it was just something I threw on," Stella told him with a small wave though Brandon was pretty sure that she had spent hours going through her wardrobe and trying one every possible out fit at least once before settling on her final choice.

"Your effortless radiance amazes me," Brandon grinned at her, and she lapped up everything he said.

"Why thank you sweetie," Stella said bashfully, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Now, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Well Stella, I wanted to tell you that I thank the gods every day that such a charming and beautiful young lady like yourself would even look at such a lowly, common squire," Brandon told her, taking her hands in his

Stella smiled brightly and her eyes shone merrily. "Well, how could I not look at such a lowly, common squire when he's so incredibly cute and noble?"

"Yes, well, while I may be all those things, I am also a jealous and selfish man, especially when it comes to a goddess like you," Brandon told her as one of his hands let go of hers to dig around his pocket until he found the ring he was looking for. "Which is why, my sweet, sensitive, sunny, stylish Stella," Brandon said, making Stella giggle at his rough poetry, "I would like to officially ask you to be my exclusive girlfriend since I cannot bare the thought of losing you to another guy."

"Oh Brandon," Stella gushed. "How could I possibly say no?"

"And as a token of my affection, I would like to give you this so that everyone knows that you're my girl," Brandon said, pulling out the ring he had gotten over the summer for her. It was a plain, simple band of gold with three small hearts etched into its surface. It wasn't as elegant as Stella deserved, but it was all Brandon could afford for her with his mediocre allowance. It wouldn't draw as much attention as the other jewelry he had seen her wear, but he had had an inscription engraved on the inside of the ring which he hoped would make it more personal.

"Oh Brandon," Stella said again, accepting the ring with her trembling hands. "It's beautiful."

"There's an inscription inside," Brandon told her, unable to keep a foolish smile from spreading across his face. Stella shifted the ring in her finger tips until she could look inside.

"'My girl, B&S always'," she read aloud. "Oh Brandon! That is so sweet! I love it!"

"Really? I mean, I know it's not like the other rings you have but – "

"You're right, it's better," Stella told him, slipping the ring on her finger and then extending her hand to get a good look at it. "It's gorgeous Brandon. It really is."

"That's good," Brandon said, wrapping his arms around her. "It matches you perfectly."

Stella smiled softly and then looked up into his brown eyes lovingly. "Hey, guess what."

"What?"

"You've got a girlfriend," she told him in a sing-song voice, reminding him of times in kindergarten when he and the other kids in his class used to torment each other with that very chant if you so much as spoke to a member of the opposite sex.

"Yes I do, and she's the most beautiful girl in the whole universe," Brandon grinned, dipping his face until he pressed his lips next to hers and everything around them disappeared.

* * *

"You've been gone for a while," Timmy commented when Brandon returned to the group. The squire's hair was a tad disheveled, but the brunette didn't seem to care. In fact, he looked as though you could put a spear right through his foot and he wouldn't stop grinning.

"And I bet I know who he was with," Sky said, looking over at Stella who had the same messed up hair and dreamy expression on her face as Brandon did.

"She accepted the ring, bro," Brandon told his prince dreamily, causing Riven to choke on his drink.

"You didn't . . . you know . . . _purpose_ to that harpy, did you?" Riven asked, his violet eyes wide with horror.

"What? No! I asked Stella to be my girlfriend exclusively and then gave her a ring to show that she's my girl and no one else's. There is no way I'm getting married anytime soon," Brandon explained. "And stop calling her a harpy."

"Wow, you must be really terrified of commitment if you freak out when someone else does it," Sky said to Riven who still looked a little wild around the eyes.

"Yeah, pretty much," Riven agreed before his eyes narrowed slightly in confusion. "Wait a minute. I thought Stella already was your girlfriend."

"We weren't official or exclusive which meant that she could have gone on a date with someone else if she wanted," Brandon said. "But now, she is officially mine and mine only."

"Well congratulations, bro," Sky grinned, slapping his best friend on the back. "She's a great girl for you."

"She'd have to be to tame Brandon into a one woman man," Timmy smirked. "Remember during the start of freshmen year how he was chasing any girl he saw? I thought he was trying to be the first to date every single fairy at Alfea at once."

"Yeah, but that all change as soon as he met Stella, huh," Sky smiled at Brandon. His friend had come a long way from ladies man to a monogamist and Sky couldn't deny that he was somewhat proud of Brandon for changing so much.

"She is gorgeous isn't she?" Brandon said in a dreamy tone, making Sky and Timmy grin again. Riven, however, looked like he had just swallowed a glass of off milk, but he kept his mouth shut none the less.

The end of the party came far too quickly for most, but the guys had to get back to Red Fountain to finishing unpacking. Timmy had shown Tecna all the upgrades he had done on the squad ship over the summer but she still hadn't had a chance to show him the programs she had created over the summer.

"Oh well, I guess you'll have to show them to me later, Tec," Timmy said to her.

"You can count on it. And don't be afraid to e-mail me anytime you want. I mean, if perhaps you'd like a second option on some of your calculations or something," Tecna told him shyly.

"Sure thing," Timmy smiled, wishing he had the courage to at least kiss her good bye on the cheek, but he didn't. "Well, I better get going. Looks like it's gonna take some effort to separate Brandon and Stella from each other."

Brandon and Stella both wore identical looks of delirious happiness and hung off of each other until Timmy and Riven had to literally pull them apart.

"Bye snookums!" Stella waved as her beloved got dragged onto the squad ship.

"Bye cup cake!" Brandon called back.

"Oh gods," Riven growled, rolling his eyes before stealing one last glance at Musa before they left. The musical fairy glared at him, and then purposely turned her head away from him. Apparently she was still angry at him and by the looks of it she would be for a while. "Sky! Hurry up man!"

"Coming!" Sky shouted before returning his attention back to Bloom. "Well, I had a really great time today."

"Me too. I had never really looked forward to summer ending back when I was on Earth, but now that I go to Alfea I couldn't wait to get back and see you all again," Bloom confessed to him. "I really missed everyone."

"Hey, I missed you too," Sky smiled softly, cupping one of her cheeks in his hand. She stared at him with those beautiful blue eyes and Sky felt his knees start to go weak.

"Sky!" Riven hollered again.

"Just a minute!" Sky shouted back, and he could hear Riven cursing darkly. "Anyway, we've got to get settled into school and prepare for the big unveiling of the new Red Fountain, but I'd love to see you again soon."

"Sure. Call me whenever to have some free time and we'll see if we can arrange something," Bloom smiled softly at him.

"I'd love that," Sky smiled back, leaning forward slight. "Well, I'd better get going but before I go . . ."

Sky closed the gap between them and brushed his lips lightly across hers. A spasm of delight shot down his spin and he felt his legs get goose-bumps of pleasure. One of his arms snaked its way around her waist in order to pull her closer to him and the other found its way into her hair. It felt as smooth and soft as it looked. He softly ran his tongue along her bottom lip and she opened her mouth in answer to his silent request. Sky quickly move to deepen the kiss when –

"Sky! C'mon!" Timmy called and Bloom quickly pulled back from the contact. A tidal wave of disappointment and irritation crashed down onto the prince, and he glare at the ship in pure hatred.

"So yeah, call me sometime," Bloom told him, straightening out her hair bashfully. Her cheeks matched the colour of her locks perfectly. "It was great to see you again."

"It was great to see you too," Sky smiled at her, though his irritation still bubbled away below the surface. "And maybe next time we won't have any annoying friends screaming at us, huh?"

Bloom giggled. "That might be fun."

"Yeah."

"Blondie! Move it!" Riven ordered impatiently.

"I'm coming! I'm coming! Geeze!" Sky spat at the ship before turning to Bloom again and giving her hand a quick squeeze. "See ya."

"Bye," Bloom waved as Sky stormed towards the squad ship ready to rip his friends into pieces after ruining his moment with Bloom.

"You guys couldn't have waited one more minute?" Sky demanded as soon as he set foot on the ship. Timmy started up the ships engines and got ready to take flight.

"Not with the way he's been carrying on," Riven stated evenly, jerking his head in Brandon's direction. The squire had been forcibly tied to his chair like a crazy person and a gag had been forced into his mouth. His brown eyes were glaring at Timmy and Riven and any cruses he might have been throwing at them were muffled by the gag.

"What did you guys do to him?" Sky asked, his eyes wide in shock.

"He kept shouting all this lovey dovey crap at Stella and I couldn't take it any more," Riven explained calmly was if it was perfectly normal to chain your friend to a chair.

"And Timmy, you let this happen?"

"Well I thought we were just going to tie him to the chair. Riven came up with the idea of the gag on his own," Timmy said. "Now get ready for take off."

"You guys are insane," Sky told them, moving over to take the gag out of Brandon's mouth.

"You bastards! You stinking bastards!" Brandon spat at Riven and Timmy as soon as he was able to talk freely. "How dare you do this to me?! You are so dead! You are so unbelievably dead! I'm going to shave your heads in your sleep! Your eyebrows are history! I'm gonna – "

"Okay, hold on guys," Timmy said as he started up the ship.

" – make you wish you have never been born. I'm – "

"Thanks for coming guys!" they could all hear Stella call to them from outside. "Great party!"

"Stella! My darling! They're imprisoned me!" Brandon tried to tell her as he struggled against his bonds. "Sun blast the living day lights out of them! Please! Stella! You've got to help me! Stel – "

At that point, Sky shoved the gag back into his friends' mouth and the only that filled the ship was in incoherent curses that were once again muffled by the gag in Brandon's mouth.

Sky rubbed the temples on side of his head as he tried to stop the headache that was forming in his brain. He could remember over the summer break when he's wish he was back at school with all his friends, but now he was starting to wish he could go back to summer break again. His only hope was that this year might be a bit less eventful than last year.

But unbeknown to him, back at Alfea the Winx Club had stumbled on the exhausted Princess of Tides, who would change the course of the year entirely.

* * *

_(1) 'Human beings, as a species, are fascinated by conflict' was a topic we had to discuss in English during my High School Certificate (the exams year 12 students in New South Wales all sit. We call it HSC for sort) and adding it into the story was kind of an inside joke to me. I still get a kick out of seeing it there._

_(2) Brother at Arms, Chapter Seven: Grounded_

_Nothing much really happens in this chapter, but it's a start. Catch ya later._

_TBC._


	2. Princess of Tides

_Okay, I need to clear something up before you read this next bit. When I was writing this chapter, I actually had the flu so the combination of being sick, being high on cold and flu medicine and the fact that I had just finished reading Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (which always puts you in an odd state of mind) resulted in half of this chapter being a bit random. I'll leave it to you to guess which half. _

_Enjoy!_

* * *

**Chapter Two – The Princess of Tides**

"So are you talking to us yet?" Sky asked Brandon a few days later during weapons practice. Their entire class was there as Codatorta drilled them through the basics of weapons. Since swords, pikes, scythes, spears, knives, staffs, clubs, axes and other similar weapons were all used under the same basic principles, the teachers would spend a day running through them all to avoid their students getting sloppy. Other weapons such as guns, boomerangs, morning stars, throwing darts and grenades would require more specific training which would be done later in the week.

"I'm not talking to anyone anymore," Brandon said stiffly. "But if I was talking to anyone – which I'm not – I'd say that I still think you're a bunch of jerks."

Brandon, who normally didn't have a long enough attention span to stay mad at someone for longer than a day, had maintained his anger from the insult he had suffered on the day of the start of year mixer. He had sworn never to speak to them again and that he would never forgive them. All assumed that his desire to speak would eventually win out over his anger eventually, but Brandon had figured that if he spoke to thin air and inanimate objects like the sugar bowl over breakfast and his friends just happened to over hear, then he could keep his promise and get out what he thought needed to be said.

"Don't you think that you're dragging this out a bit long?" Timmy asked as he looked his saffron phantom blade over. Phantom blades never required sharpening, but they could still be damaged and have small chips taken out of them or form hairline cracks if not cared for properly. Timmy would never let anything that belonged to him be neglected, but it was still his nature to double check everything.

"No! You tied me up!" Brandon reminded Timmy, totally forgetting that he wasn't talking to anyone anymore.

"Then we untied you."

"Not all of me. My hand and ankles were still tied up and I had to hop all the way from the hanger to our dorm. Do you know how hard it is to open doors without your hands?"

"Oh I hope you didn't use your mouth," Timmy said with a disgusted expression. "Door handles have to be one of the most unhygienic things in the universe. Thousands of germs come into contact with them everyday and yet how often do you clean your door handles? Never, right? And people go on about how unclean a toilet is. Have they even considered the bathroom door handle?"

"Okay?" Sky said uncertainly. "I think both of you are both just over reacting."

"_What?!" _both boys exclaim in horror and outrage.

"You might not be able to see a germ, but it can still kill you," Timmy told Sky. "They're like the original assassins."

"I fell over while I was hopping back to our dorm and it took me ten minutes to stand back up again. And I got a bruise from the fall. Look!" Brandon said, rolling up his uniform to expose his shin. A large purplish black bruise was a few inches below Brandon's knee and it was the most peculiar shape.

"It kind of looks like a dolphin," Sky noted, narrowing his eyes.

"_What?!" _both boys said in unison again.

"If you squint your eyes and tilt your head like this, it kinda looks like a dolphin," Sky repeated.

"My bruise does not look like a dolphin," Brandon said in a very insulted tone of voice.

"Hey! I can see dolphin now too!" Timmy announced excitedly and Brandon rolled down his pants leg in a huff. "Oh, c'mon man. Lighten up."

"So says the guy who just freaked out over door handles."

"What happenin' here?" Riven asked, rejoining the group after spending most of the lesson debating something with Lex, Toby and the boy everyone called Sally.

"Timmy's worried about door handles and germs being the original assassins while Brandon is denying that his bruise doesn't look like a dolphin even though it does," Sky explained in an extremely calm voice as if those were perfectly normal topics of conversation.

Riven stared at his friends in bewilderment. "You know I just left Lex, Toby and Sally because they were debating nonsense and I thought I'd be able to get some intelligent conversation out of you guys. Clearly I was mistaken."

"What was Lex, Toby and Sally arguing about?" Sky asked.

"Who would win the ultimate battle; ninjas or pirates?" (1)

"Oh, that's a good one," Brandon grinned.

"That's so stupid," Sky said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I know," Riven agreed.

"It's obviously ninjas."

"What? You moron, pirates would kick their ass," Riven disagreed.

"Ninja's have special skills."

"So? Pirates fight randomly and there's no way to plan around that."

"No way. Ninjas will win hands down," Sky said, folding his arms across his chest and glaring at Riven. The burgundy hair specialist to just gearing up to launch into one of his and Sky's epic disagreements, when Codatorta decided that his students had rested long enough and was going to put them back into their training.

"Alright lads! Get in your places! We've got a whole hour to work on your footwork!" Codatorta barked and the students seemed to groan as one. Riven shot Sky a 'this isn't over look' and then did as his instructor ordered. About half an hour into Codatorta barking out 'advance', 'retire' and 'lunge', the sound of someone clearing heir voice snapped all the boys and their instructor out of their focus. Everyone looked over towards the doors of the gym they were training in and all the students straightened their stance slightly when they all saw that the cough belonged to none other than their headmaster and prominent sorcerer Saladin. "Headmaster Saladin," Codatorta greeted. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"I'm terribly sorry for interrupting your lesson, but I was wondering if I might be able to steal two of your students for a moment or two?" the headmaster asked in that voice of his that made all his students want to aspire to a level that would make him proud of them.

"Not at all," Codatorta replied. "Take your pick."

"Thank you. Prince Sky, Brandon, may I please speak with you boys privately?"

"Sir!" both boy answered briskly, snapping to attention before filing out of the class and made their way out of the gym with the headmaster while their class mates watched them leave with envious eyes. Having good footwork was important in fighting, but hours of drilling the basics were rather mind numbing. (2)

Saladin didn't speak as he walked through the empty corridors of Red Fountain and the two boys followed after him in silence. The only sound was the clicking of the heels of their boots and the clunk of Saladin staff on the polished stone floor. Finally, Saladin stepped out onto one of the battlements and observed one of the more damaged parts of the school which had been completely closed off the students. Brandon and Sky exchanged an uncertain look while they waited for the headmaster to break the silence. What on Magix would Saladin want to talk to them privately about?

"It's still hard to believe that Red Fountain fell last year," Saladin said suddenly in a solemn voice as he looked over the ruins of his school. "When I first started teaching here my hair was as black as the feathers of a raven, if you can believe it. But decades of trying to keep a whole bunch of high school boys out of trouble have turned me completely grey."

"Er, excuse me sir, but was this what you wanted to talk to us about?" Sky asked while Brandon was busy trying to picture Saladin with black hair.

"No, just thinking out loud," Saladin answered softly as he regarded his broken school for a few seconds longer before turning his attention back to the two boys he had pulled out of class. "I was wondering if I might be able to ask a favour of you boys. In a week, my grandson Helia will be arrive of a small visit to Red Fountain so he can see the unveiling of our new campus and I was hoping that you two would be able to show him around. He's your age and will be staying in the room next to your new dorm. Also, you two boys are model students and I know that you'll be a fine example for our prestigious school and make Helia feel welcome. Would you boys be willing to help me out in this small way?"

"We would be delighted sir," Brandon answered for both boys who stood at attention. "We're honoured that you have selected us for such as mission."

"Yes, well, you are two of my best students and I'm not just talking about in your grade," Saladin smiled honestly. "And I must admit that I have another motive for inviting m grandson to the unveiling of the new campus. For the last few years I've completely submerged myself in this school and while I have no regrets, I can't help but wish that I could have some of my family living close to me so I could see them more often, particularly recently since my health has been slipping slightly. My wife has already passed on and our children have their own lives in various realms throughout the universe that I can't ask them to leave. Helia, the only child of my youngest daughter, is the only possible person who could join me here in Magix, but that would mean he would have to leave Ossacip School of Art (3) which I could never force him to do."

"So, you want us make Red Fountain appealing to Helia so he'll enroll here?" Sky asked.

"I'm not trying to put any pressure on you boys, please understand that, but it would mean a great deal to me if Helia enrolled here at Red Fountain. I unfortunately have been a rather neglectful grandfather over the last few years and wish to make up for it," Saladin explained. "And I'm sure that if anyone would be able to convince Helia to stay it would be the two of you."

"We'll try our best sir," Brandon promised earnestly.

"Thank you," Saladin smiled warmly. "I'm sure you'll be able to get the rest of your friends to help you, although I have to inform you that Helia has a rather gentle nature so he might not get along to well with the more . . . er, competitive members of your class."

"Don't worry. We're trying to keep Riven on a tight leash this year," Brandon grinned, knowing exactly what the headmaster was trying to say.

"That good to hear," Saladin said with a somewhat relieved looked. "That boy has astounding potential to make something of himself, especially when you consider his background, provided he keeps himself out of trouble. He caused me plenty of headaches last year that I don't wish to repeat. I understand that he was brought up to a very different life style than everyone else, but I do not want a repetition of his thieving, drinking, wagging, curfew breaking, forgery – "

"Forgery?" Sky repeated, his eyes widening. He knew Riven had some skill when it came to copying signatures, but Sky didn't know that he did it enough to grab Saladin's attention.

"Of yes. He signs my name better than I do sometimes," Saladin explained calmly.

"What? He didn't dare, did he?"

"Not often. Although he has got Javelin's and Doc's signatures down pretty well. But with you boys watching him again I'm sure he'll straighten out and thank you again for agreeing to show Helia around. He hasn't been to Red Fountain since he was seven years old so I'm sure he's forgotten the lay out of the place since then."

"It's our pleasure, sir," Brandon told him.

"That's good to hear," Saladin smiled again. "Now, I better let you get back to your class so that you may continue your footwork revisal."

* * *

"So, Saladin has a grandson? Wow. For some reason I never pictured him with a family," Bloom said that night to Sky over the phone. Bloom had told him to call her sometime and Sky was willing to use that as many times as he could. In fact, a day hadn't gone by since the start of year mixer that the two of them didn't speak to each other in some way. Sometimes that would mean a simple text message that read 'I miss you' and then other times they would spend hours on the phone talking about nothing in particular.

And Sky couldn't be happier.

"Yeah, he was even married at one stage but his wife passed away years ago due to illness. I'm pretty sure that they had three children between them; one son and two daughters. This kid Helia is apparently the only child of Saladin's youngest daughter."

"Do you think he's a sorcerer like his grandfather is?" Bloom asked.

"I dunno. I guess it's possible. That kind of skill can run through families, but I think that sorcerers only happened when a person has the potential and uses it. Apparently there are many people who go through life with the potential, but they never discover it so they never know that they're a sorcerer. I guess it's kinda like everyone has the potential to play an instrument, but you'll never know if you're a natural at it until you try it."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Bloom said, though her voice sounded a bit distant.

"Are you aright Bloom? You seem a bit distracted."

"I am," Bloom sighed. "I'm worried about this girl we found. It's been days and she still hasn't woken up."

"And you still don't know anything about her?" Sky asked. Bloom had filled him in on how this girl had stumbled out of the forest with a baby pixie and then collapsed, and he could tell that her continued unconsciousness was making Bloom worry.

"Well, according to Tecna, she's a princess from the Realm of Tides and Ms. Faragonda said that her name was Layla."

"Princess Layla? Why didn't you say so? I've met her before at a couple of royal functions."

"You have? What's she like?"

"I'm not sure. I only talked to her for like a second and we were only kids back then."

"I'm still worried about her."

"She'll be fine Bloom. In a few days she'll wake up and then you'll see that everything's okay."

"But that's just it; it doesn't feel like everything okay. I've got this really bad feeling that something in the universe is wrong and this might sound crazy, but I think it has something to do with me," Bloom told him in a small voice. "Oh, I'm not even sure if I understand what I'm talking about. Maybe I'm just tired."

"How 'bout I let you go so you can try and get some sleep?"

"Okay. Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Sure. Night Bloom."

"Goodnight Sky."

* * *

_(1) This debate always seems to pop up and like the chicken and the egg, no one knows the answer_

_(2) When I used to do fencing, we'd have to warm up before ever class by doing footwork and after just a few minutes of it, it used to get boring _

_(3) Obviously I made up the name for Helia's old school. Ossacip is actually Picasso backwards just in case you wanted to know_

_Like I said; that chapter's kinda random, and not that long which is a nice change from the mammoth size chapters that show up later. It's just basically setting some stuff up for future chapters. _

_Anyway, so long and thanks for all the fish!_

_TBC_


	3. Into the Under Realm

_Okay, now it's time for one of those long chapters I mentioned before, but finally some stuff starts happening. Yay! So let's get into it_

* * *

**Chapter Three – Into the Under Realm **

Riven's headache had come on suddenly and without any prior warning. It had started out as a dull thudding ache but had quick aspired to the stage where it was so powerful that he couldn't tolerate the simple act of getting vertical. This, coupled with Riven's regular foul attitude towards life, resulted in him developing a more than irritable and bad tempered mood that most people tried not to agitate further.

But Brandon was never like most people.

"Maybe your brain's broken," Brandon said helpfully as he watched his friend suffer.

"You can't break a brain, Brandon," Timmy reminded the squire from his place typing away at his computer. "Or at least you can't break a brain and continue living."

"Well, Darcy messed around with it last year," Brandon pointed out. "Maybe she busted it up real good and now it needs a kick start."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Sky asked casually, not looking up from the text book he was reading.

"That same way you fix a computer or indeed anything that's broken; give it a good, hard whack."

Timmy stared at his friend in horror and unconsciously moved between the squire and his beloved computer. "I am never letting you use my computer again, you go that? Never, never, never, never!"

"Stop talking," Riven groaned from his place lying on the floor with his arm draped over his eyes to block out the light. "You're making it worse."

"As if I am," Brandon dismissed casually.

"Are you trying to die at a young age?" Sky asked his best friend.

"What can I say? I'm a thrill seeker," Brandon smirked.

"I'll thrill seeker you in a minute," Riven growled.

"You'll thrill seeker me? Is that supposed to be a threat or something(1)?"

"Just shut up."

"Why should I?"

"Brandon, leave Riven alone," Timmy warned, but Brandon took no heed to his friends wise words.

"Oh, I'm just teasing him. You know that, right Rivie?" Brandon continued. "Rivie Rivie Roo Roo."

"I think that when Riven murders Brandon, you'd be the best person to speak at his funeral," Timmy said to Sky calmly who nodded in agreement.

"You are so dead," Riven hissed between clenched teeth while rubbing his temples to try and relieve some of the tension.

"Oh come on. You know you love me to much to do . . ." Brandon trailed off as Riven's eyes suddenly snapped open with frightening determination, indicating that Riven was willing to endure the blinding pain of his headache so he could attempt to kill his friend. "Oh shit!"

Without even issuing a threat, Riven sprung to his feet and made a lunge for Brandon's throat. The squire scrambled off his bed like a deer trying to escape the claws of a mountain lion and made a bolt for the door.

"You're dead, squire," Riven growled as he made after his friend, but when Brandon came to a sudden stop at the doorway Riven had no time to reduce his speed and collided straight into Brandon from behind and in doing so bit part of his lip. "Son of a . . ." Riven spat, touching his lip that he could already tell was gonna swell. "What you do that for?"

"Staying out of trouble I hope, boys," said a quiet voice so soft that the boys almost didn't catch it. None of them knew when Professor Javelin had appeared in their doorway, but the thin teacher was there none the less with the same, tranquil expression on his face that he always seemed to ware. "After all, starting the semester with a casualty does not set off us to a good school year now does it?"

"No sir," all four boys answered, trying to shake of the uneasy feeling they got with the calm, expressionless way Javelin had addressed the schools policy on the murdering of its students.

"Excellent," Javelin nodded approvingly. "Headmaster Saladin requests that the four of you see him in his office."

"What about sir?" Brandon asked.

"I'm not sure but I'm certain that you'll find out if you go see Headmaster Saladin," Javelin repeated without sarcasm or irritation. "Best not to keep him waiting, boys."

"Yes sir!"

* * *

Headmaster Saladin's office had not faired well after the Great Witch Invasion. The walls had massive cracks in them, parts of the ceiling had collapsed in giving the sorcerer an unasked for sky light and the rugs had a faint moldy smell to them as a result of the school flooring when the ice that had been installed courtesy of Icy during the Great Witch Invasion had melted. But since he was getting a new office in a few weeks anyway, Saladin endured the discomfort and the smell calmly though the thought of his new school was never far from his mind. Most of his belongings had already been cleared from his office and only the things he used on a daily basis had been left behind.

"You wanted to see us sir?" Sky asked on behalf of the rest of the group of teenagers.

"Yes, I did," Saladin said, putting down the papers he had been shuffling through so he could give his students his full attention. "Since I am certain that you four have been in contact with Bloom and the rest of the Winx Club since the school year started, I'm sure there is no need to inform you about the condition of Princess Layla of Tides."

"Yes, we've heard," Sky nodded. "She was found in the forest just outside of Alfea over a week ago and has been sleeping in Alfea's infirmary ever since then."

"Actually you mean; up until two days ago," Saladin corrected calmly. "Princess Layla is awake and has made a complete recovery. Apparently she's quite an athlete so her body was able to revive itself quickly."

"She's healed already?" Brandon repeated, his eyes widening. Stella of course had given him a full recount on the discovery of Layla so he was a bit surprised to hear that she was back on her feet after the way she had just collapsed.

"Did they find out what happened to her?" Timmy asked.

"Yes, apparently the young lady had her powers and her energy drained from her while she was search for a group of kidnapped pixies in the Under Realm," Saladin told them.

"The Under Realm?!" the boys all exclaimed in horror and shock. They had covered the Under Realm in their freshmen year since it was such a powerfully negative realm that was close by the school. Located under the Arid Mountain Range in the Realm of Magix, the Under Realm was home to a civilization of beings the lived in a secluded world untouched by outsiders. These beings were trogs, who mostly kept to themselves and therefore very little was known about their way of life. But there was another form of life that existed in the Under Realm. A dark shadow plagued the Under Realm, and ruled over the darkest part of the caves; Shadow Haunt. The shadow, which some reports claimed to exist in the form of a bird, was rumored to be made up of pure darkness and was completely evil.

In short, the Under Realm and Shadow Haunt was not a place one ventured into lightly.

"What was a fairy doing in the Under Realm?" Sky asked. "And a princess at that?"

"Princess Layla was investigating the disappearance of several pixies from Pixie Village who were apparently kidnapped by a group of shadow monsters and taken to Shadow Haunt," Saladin explained. "Unfortunately she was unsuccessful at freeing the pixies which is why she, Bloom and Stella will be returning to Shadow Haunt to rescue the pixies and at Ms. Faragonda's request I have decided to send two of you boys as a support team."

"Say what?" Brandon exclaimed. He knew all about the danger that Shadow Haunt and the Under Realm had on offer, and he also knew that there were countless other nasties that lurked unknown in the shadows that were yet to be discovered, and they were going to send a bunch of high school students right into the thick of it? "I mean, I'm sure I can handle it, but still. Shadow Haunt? You can't be serious?"

"Yes Brandon, I am."

"It's a pretty high risk mission, sir," Timmy noted. "If you don't mind me asking; why are we making such a dangerous risk?"

"Yeah," Riven agreed. "Why all the effort to save a bunch of bugs?"

Saladin shot Riven a warning look before answering, "Given the pixies positive energy and the negative energy the caves in Shadow Haunt give off, the pixies strength would be rapidly draining. They won't last much longer so we have no time to plan a safer way to rescue them. There lives are in danger. Also, Red Fountain, along with Alfea and Cloud Tower, has always had a strong alliance with the pixies of Pixie Village so we will not abandon them in their time of need. Athena wouldn't allow it."

"Who wouldn't?" Sky asked.

"I wouldn't," a soft, female voice answered, and all four boys jumped and tried to work out where that voice belonged to. They found their answer in the shape of a small pixie with rose coloured hair. The dress she wore was the same shade as cherry blossoms and was cut in a slightly regal style and her golden and green wings were fluttering as she hovered over Saladin's desk. She regarded each of the boys in turn with her cherry eyes and then turned her head to address Saladin. "I guess they'll do."

"Gentlemen," Saladin said with a slight grin in his voice from the pixie's comment. "May I introduce the Pixie Elder Athena, the honourable pixie of Red Fountain."

Brandon's brown eye widened. "We have a pixie here at Red Fountain?"

"Not just a pixie, a Pixie Elder," Timmy corrected. "They're pretty much like pixie royalty."

A soft smile spread across Athena's tiny face. "Oh, I like that one."

"How long has Red Fountain had a resident Pixie Elder?" Sky asked.

"Athena had been her almost as long as I have," Saladin said with a warm smile. "She is responsible for guarding a very special and very powerful artifact and over the years we have formed a fond friendship. So when Athena asked me to help in the rescue of several of her personal friends I couldn't help but comply too her wishes. As a result, I will be sending both Brandon and Sky with the three girls that Faragonda has decided to let go to Shadow Haunt. Timmy and Riven will accompany them on the squad ship to help transport them to the caves."

"What? Why do we get reduced to the task of delivery boys?" Riven demanded on behalf of both Timmy and himself.

"Because you called the mission objectives bugs," Athena said stiffly and Riven's violet eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Actually we made our decision based on the results of the course you did last year on surviving uninhabited terrain," Saladin informed the boys. "Brandon and Sky received the highest grades out of your class."

"Oh that's hardly fair," Riven complained heatedly. "Doc wouldn't let me participate in most of that course."

"That's because you had your leg impaled by a massive shard of glass (2)," Brandon reminded him calmly. "You were supposed to be resting it."

"I could walk on it fine."

"Yeah, well, you shouldn't have."

"Whatever the reason, our decision has been made and no amount of complaining is going to change our minds. Do I make myself clear, boys?" Saladin asked in a no nonsense tone of voice.

"Yes sir," the four boys answered in unison though Timmy and Riven didn't sound too pleased about it.

"Excellent. Now, the girls wish to leave as soon as possible so I'll ask you to prepare yourselves as quickly as you can and then make your way over to Alfea so you can pick up the girls. I suggest you bring your standard weapons and supplies as well as you PHA with as many attachments as you can carry."

"Awesome," Brandon said with a massive grin spreading across his face. A Personal Heroes Assistant – or PHA as it was known for short – was standard equipment given to all juniors at Red Fountain, and this years model had been recently updated so the boys were being give top of the line gear. Brandon and Timmy were totally loving the different functions and tasks the PHA could do and would use theirs every chance they could. Sky and Riven, however, were still content with simply beating each other up with the phantom blades they had been given in freshmen year.

"And please hurry," Athena begged them. "Those pixies are more than just my friends; they're my family."

"Don't worry Athena. We'll do our very best to rescue the pixies and return them to Magix safely," Sky promised earnestly.

"I hope you can, but I fear time may be running out for them," Saladin said solemnly. "Now you boys get ready. You have a very difficult task ahead of you, and I wish you all the best of luck."

* * *

"This is bullshit," Riven snarled as he mounted his levi bike. "Brandon and Sky received the highest grades out of your class. _Blah._ As if grades have to do with anything?"

"I love it how easily you accept orders, Riv," Brandon muttered sarcastically as he also climbed on his bike.

"Oh shut up."

"You started it, man."

"I said shut up."

"Children, behave yourselves," Sky scolded before activating the radio on his bike that linked him to Timmy on the squad ship. "Sky to Timmy."

"Go for Timmy," the teenage genius replied via the intercom.

"We're about to head over to Alfea now. Are you right to follow us in the squad ship?"

"Ten four. See ya there."

"Ten four," Sky said as he pulled on his helmet. Twisting slightly in his seat, the prince looked over at his two friends who would be riding with him to Alfea. "You two good to go?"

"You bet I am," Brandon grinned, also pulling on his helmet. Riven only grunted in response to Sky's question, but he started up the engine to his bike to indicate that he was ready.

The trip to Alfea occurred without any dramas so it wasn't long before the three boys pulled into the quad of Alfea where a group of people were waiting for them. Saladin was there since he had left Red Fountain while the boys were getting ready, as was Ms Faragonda. The Headmistress of Alfea looked gentle and delicate as always, but her purple eyes were hard with concern for both the pixies and the students that she was sending to such a dangerous place. All five members of the Winx Club were there as well as another girl that only Sky recognized. Her dark brown hair was long and wavy and her skin was dark. Her eyes were an enchanting shade of teal and seemed to posses a steely kind of strength, but the thing that stood out most to the boys was that she didn't seem too impressed to see them.

The new girl – which all the boys guessed correctly to be Princess Layla of the Realm of Tides – was dressed in a tan coloured survival uniform that they had seen the Winx Club wear when they had come across them doing a field assignment in the Black Mud Swamp. Bloom and Stella were dressed in the same attire while Tecna, Musa and Flora were wearing their normal civilian clothes, and they did not look too happy about that.

"The boys are going? That's not fair," Tecna complained loudly as the boys came to a stop on their bikes.

Stella, however, looked thrilled. Leaning over, she whispered to Bloom, "This'll be so much fun."

Musa was as unimpressed as Tecna was. "Oh come on. They don't even have powers."

"Which means that they don't have powers to lose," Ms. Faragonda pointed out wisely.

"Last year the boys took a course on surviving unexplored terrain. These two did the best in their class," Saladin explain, gesturing to the two boys he was sending on the mission. "Brandon and Sky should be of great help."

"Oh yeah!" Stella cheered and Bloom giggled happily.

The rest of the girls remained unenthusiastic.

"According to my calculations their presences barely improves their chance of success," Tecna noted before leaning towards Layla. "You'd be much better off with us along."

"Hmm, you're right," Layla agreed without much thought on the matter. "Why would we need high school boys?"

"We're not just high school boys," Brandon told her, somewhat insulted. "We're heroes."

"And what does that mean?"

"We go to Red Fountain," Sky told her with a smile and a ridiculous little hand jig to try and relieve the tension. All it succeeded in doing was cause a couple of baffled looks in his direction from Brandon and a few members of the Winx Club.

Riven was trying his very best not to rip into the princess who had insulted him and his school so he simply tried to detach himself from the conversation that was going on around him, but that proved to be rather difficult went he felt someone's eyes on him. Looking over at the group while Saladin explained how his students were highly trained and prepared for any emergency situation be it worldly or magical, Riven quickly identified Musa's navy blue eyes as the ones watching him. As soon as she realized she had his attention, however, her eyes narrowed to inform him that she was still angry at him for what he had said at the start of year mixer. Riven turned his head away but kept his eyes on her so he saw her face fall as soon as she thought he wasn't looking. She was unaware that he had seen this thanks to the windshield of his helmet.

Suddenly, the attention of the group was turned skywards as a red squad ship flew over the quad and slowed itself down till it was hovering in mid air just outside the walls of Alfea.

"Hey it's Timmy," Tecna said happily, but then she remembered that she was supposed to be angry about the current situation her headmistress was enforcing and her mood changed swiftly. "Is he going too?"

"Timmy and Riven are going to use the squad ship to transport them. Only Brandon and Sky will go on the mission," Saladin explained to the girls.

The hatch to the squad ship opened and Timmy suddenly appeared in the doorway. He looked down at the group and waved to them all, though everyone knew who he was really greeting. "Tecna! How's it going?"

"Hello there," Tecna replied happily. Apparently she got the drift that Timmy and Riven were just as unhappy with Saladin's and Faragonda's decision so she decided to cut him some slack.

Stella was one person who definitely wasn't upset by the current situation. She practically skipped over to Brandon's bike and climbed on behind him happily. She didn't even complain about the chance of her getting helmet hair when he gave her the helmet. Giving Brandon a small hug from behind, she grinned gleefully and said, "Ready to go honey bear."

"Me too," Bloom said, leaning closer to Sky and wrapping her arms around him, and in doing so sent shivers of delight down the princes spine.

Two people who certainly weren't getting shivers at the impending closeness they were being forced to endure was Riven and Layla, though they were trying their best to be civil and not have their irritation show though.

"Can you hand me that helmet?" Layla asked pleasantly, which Riven complied to. "Now slide to the back seat."

"Huh?" Riven asked, exchanging a look with the other guys.

"Come on. How am I gonna drive with you sitting in the front like that?" Layla asked, unaware of just how thin the ice she was walking on was.

"What?" Riven snarled in a feral tone of voice. She thought she was going to drive his bike? His levi bike? Fat chance of that happening. He had spent all summer modifying it and cleaning the engine to ensure that it was in pristine condition and she thought he was going to let her touch it? She was lucky he was letting her ride on it. He valued the state of his bike over his friends' lives from time to time. And this princess thought she was just going to waltz right in and defile his baby? Not in this life time.

"Oh no," Bloom groaned, sensing the dangerous signs. Brandon and Sky were also on edge. Riven had been in a pretty feral mood over the last few days and this Layla girl had no idea of the volcano she was tempting.

"Move," Layla ordered, placing her hands on her hips impatiently.

Riven chuckled maliciously to himself as he shifted his shoulders and geared up to tear this snot nosed princess to shreds. The nerve of her to demand that she be the one to drive his bike. That spoiled princess had spent far too long locked away in her little palace where her servants jumped to her every command. Well, Riven was going to snap her back to reality and she wasn't going to know what hit her.

Breathing deep, Riven got ready to let his first insults fly when Musa's voice suddenly filled his mind, causing the words to die on his lips.

_Style is change, and unfortunately you are never going to be stylish because you will never change from the self centered, chauvinist, arrogant prick that you are!_

Damn that woman! It was those words that had caused him to be so moody over the last few days which is probably why he had developed a headache before and right now they were forcing him into an internal tug-a-war between his pride and his desire to prove to Musa that he was somewhat worthy of her attention. If he let Layla drive his bike that would mean that he would prove Musa wrong and that might change her attitude about him. But of course that would mean giving up his darling bike who had never let him down before. It was impossible to choose between them, and yet Riven knew that he needed too, and quickly.

"Well?" Layla asked impatiently.

Clenching his teeth in pure frustration, Riven wordlessly slide to the back of his bike and sat seething as he watch Layla molest his beloved bike with her wretched hands. He shot a look in Musa's direction, hoping she'd understand that he could change, and judging by the small smile that touched her lips she got the message.

"Well, that was unexpected," Stella whispered to Brandon, who nodded in agreement since he was too stunned to speak. He was broken out of his trance as Layla and Sky powered up their bikes and took off out of the quad. "See you later."

The three bikes shot out of Alfea's front great and headed off towards the ship where Timmy was waiting to take them to the Under Realm. Riven felt some level of satisfaction when he saw that Layla didn't know how to really get the most out of his bike so Sky easily over took her. Brandon was still trailing behind them, but that was mostly because he had left last.

Sky increased the speed of his bike as he prepared to fly up towards the squad ship. Setting the vertical boosters on maximum, the ground started to drop away from them as they rose into the sky. "Hang on Bloom."

Swinging the bike around, Sky brought it in for a smooth landing in the ships cargo bay, and he was followed closely by Layla on Riven's bike. The platform they landed on slid back into the ship and Brandon flew his bike in just before the hatch started to close. As soon as the hatch to the squad ship had been closed completely, Sky removed his helmet and waited patiently for Bloom to climb off of the back of the bike so he could do the same. "Come into the cockpit, guys. It's a lot more comfortable than the cargo bay."

"Not to mention not as stinky," Stella added making her way into the cockpit where Timmy was piloting the ship. The rest of the group followed, though Riven did linger behind a bit to make sure his bike hadn't been damaged in the few minutes that Layla had driven it. "Why is it that all cargo bay smell like petrol, grease or rotting food?"

"I dunno," Brandon shrugged. "Just one of those homely characteristics that all ships pick up, I guess."

"Homely? I don't recall my place ever smelling like a cargo bay," Sky said with a laugh and it was in that moment he got the feeling that someone was watching him. Looking around, Sky quickly saw that Princess Layla was staring at him questioningly with those teal eyes of hers.

"I know you, don't I?" Layla asked in a confident voice.

"Yes, you do, your highness," Sky answered, bowing his head formally. "My name is Prince Sky, heir to the royal throne of the Realm of Eraklyon. May I also introduce Brandon, my first royal squire, Timmy, our pilot for today and Riven, who was surprisingly kind enough to lend you his bike earlier."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, your highness," Brandon greeted warmly.

"Please, just call me Layla," the Princess of Tides insisted. "I tend to find all that formality tediously annoying."

"I know exactly what you mean," Sky told her with a grin. "That's one of the reasons I love going to Red Fountain so much, Most of the guys there take no notice of a rank like that."

"So what is it that you heroes do exactly?" Layla asked.

Stella swivel in the chair she was sitting in to look at her boyfriend. "Why don't you tell her Brandon?"

"Well, we're not officially heroes until we graduated," Brandon corrected. "But we do all sorts of heroic activities like rescue operations. We also battle monsters and evil forces in general."

"Right," Layla said in a slightly cynical tone of voice.

Brandon did his best not to notice. "We also get to have really cool gear like out brand new PHA."

"Bran, what is a PHA?" Stella asked him.

"A Personal Heroes' Assistant," Brandon explained, pulling out his PHA to show off to the girls. Bloom and Stella looked impressed, but Layla only took one glance at it then looked out the window. "It's a top of the line cyber tool that does tons of cool stuff."

"Er, Brandon?" Layla tried to cut in, but Brandon had put far too much effort in trying to block out her and her cynical attitude towards him and the other boys that he took no notice of her.

"And this is one of the fastest ships in Magix. Show 'em."

"Sure," Timmy grinned, accelerating the ships speed. The fast speed to clearly be felt and the girls gripped their seats as the squad ship shot through the air. Then boys, however, were barely affected.

"Isn't it great?" Brandon asked, hoping to finally get Layla to starting thinking that maybe it was a good idea to bring them along.

"It's really impressive," Layla admitted and a victorious grin spread across Brandon's face. "But it'd be even more impressive if you were going in the right direction."

Brandon's smile instantly faded. "Oops. Turn around Timmy."

* * *

It took them about an hour and a half to get from Alfea to the outer boundaries of the Under Realm, and that was with Timmy gunning it the whole way. Unlike the lush, green woodlands that surrounded Magix, the upper layer of the Under Realm was a desolate waste land that lack vegetation of any kind. Tall cliffs and chasms gave the land a very jagged and rugged feel and no one could spot any form of life from the ship.

"Not exactly the most inviting place, huh?" Stella commented, peering down at the alien looking land that was only a short trip from her school.

"How do we get into the Under Realm?" Bloom asked, looking over at Layla for some kind of answer.

"Last time I took the north entrance and I definitely don't want to do that again," Layla said, regarding the controls and the ship display monitors. "Keep going this way. It looks like the south entrance should be right over there."

"But isn't the north entrance better?" Timmy asked her. While Brandon and Sky had been getting ready, Timmy had pulled out all his old notes from freshmen year about the Under Realm to try and get so idea of the topography of the cave entrances.

"Well I think going in this way might give us the element of surprise we need."

"Set her down," Sky ordered and Timmy was quick to comply.

"Oh, how dramatic (3)," Riven muttered sarcastically.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Timmy blocked his friends out and tried to focus on landing the ship so his friends could get out. But one look at the readings the ships monitors were feeding back to him told him that that would be impossible. "I won't be able to land guys. If the ship touches the rock its power will be instantly drained. This is as close as the ship should get to the ground. Can you guys get out here?"

Sky pulled out a rope. "No problem."

"Wait. You're gonna make us climb out of the ship while it's hovering in mid air and then land on the ledge of a cliff?" Stella asked with a noticeable level of panic in her voice.

"Don't worry Stell," Brandon told her. "It'll be fine."

"Um, oh no it won't!" Stella said in alarm. "Timmy, you land this ship now! I don't care if the power drains and you and Riven have to walk back! I am not getting off until this ship is on the ground!"

"What's the matter, Stella?" Bloom asked, clearly worried for her friend. Stella looked at everyone in turn and everyone saw how pale she had gotten. Lowering her eyes, Stella mumbled something, but no one was able to catch the words she said. "What was that?"

"I'm scared of height!" Stella quickly admitted and then stared intensely at her shoes. A stunned silence filled the ship and unfortunately it was Riven who found his voice first.

"What do you mean you're scared of height?" Riven demanded. "You're a fairy for crying out loud! You have wings!"

"Riven! Stop it!" Sky scolded.

"Oh come on! I kept my mouth shut while miss anti man here threw all her crap around, but this is just ridiculous!"

"Riven! That's enough!" Sky ordered angrily. Riven continued to mutter stuff under his breath but no one could understand what he was saying. Getting his anger under control, Sky smiled reassuringly at Stella. "Don't worry Stella. We'll get the ship as close as we can to the rocks and then we'll make sure it's absolutely safe before you have to climb down."

"You promise?" Stella asked in a timid little voice.

"I promise," Sky told her. "I'll even go down first to make double sure it's safe."

"And I'll be right behind you," Brandon said, slipping his hand into her and giving it a quick squeeze. "It'll be okay."

"Oh Snookums," Stella cried, but she nodded her head in agreement to what the boys were promising her. "Alright. We'll go down the rope."

As Brandon edge slowly with Stella towards the hatch of the ship, Sky slide down the rope and landed on the ground. Brandon managed to get Stella all the way to the edge of the ship before she lost it again.

"I'm sorry. I can't," Stella said, taking a step backwards.

"I told you she was too chicken," Riven muttered from his place leaning up against the side of the ship with his arms folded across his chest. Brandon, Bloom and Layla all glared at Riven, but all three of them combined had nothing on the filthy look Stella gave him.

"Now look here, mister. I stood up to a Minotaur when I was without my powers. I went to Sparx and battled a giant snow monster! I took on the Trix and the Army of Decay and didn't once mess my hair! I am _not_ too chicken for anything!"

"Oh yeah? Prove it," Riven challenged.

"I will!" Stella snapped, turning on heel and marching to the edge of the hatch. She was just bending down to take hold of the rope when she suddenly froze and looked back at Riven. "I know what you're doing."

"Do you now?"

"Yeah. And thanks," Stella said with a smile and even more amazing was that Riven returned it with a one sided grin of his own.

"I'm confused. Are they friends or not?" Layla asked Brandon who shrugged.

"It's too complex to say," Brandon explained.

"Come on!" Sky called up to them from the ledge below. "Come on down guys!"

Stella steeled herself and then went to go over the edge of the hatch and slide down to join him, but before she could move and inch, her makeup case fell out of one of her pockets and started plummeting down towards the ledge below. "Oh no!" Stella wailed. Forgetting her fear of heights, she made a lunge for the case but ended up falling out of the ship instead. With lightning fast reflexes she grabbed onto the rope, but her makeup case continued to fall. "Sky! That's the royal makeup case!"

Before Sky could react, the case bounced at his feet and fell off ledge. "I'm sorry Stella. I'll get you a new one."

"You can't!" Stella told him bitterly. "It's couture."

"Well I'm sure that you won't need any makeup here," Sky said, trying to get her so see to positive.

Stella did not take it very well. "Boys can be so clueless sometimes."

As Stella and Bloom made their way down the rope, Brandon waited with Riven for Layla to climb down. Before the aquatic fairy started down the rope, however, she shot a look in Riven's direction. "I'm not sure if I like you," she confessed to him.

"Most people don't," Riven responded with a completely straight face. Layla gave him another questioningly look and then started down the rope.

"You've been acting very strange today," Brandon commented, and then without another word he headed for the rope and began climbing down. When all five teenagers were down, Riven pulled up the rope and gave Timmy the all clear to head back to Red Fountain.

"Be careful," Riven waved as the hatch closed and Timmy started to take off. Below them, the others waved to them as they left.

"See ya!" Stella called after them.

"Thanks guys!" Bloom added, and they all watched as the ship arced around a cliff and then vanished from sight.

"Come on guys," Layla said as she entered the cave. "We should go this way."

"Why do we always have to go through tunnels?" Brandon asked as they all followed Layla. "I mean, that time we went to Cloud Tower during the Great Witch Invasion was through tunnels as well and after a while the smell of dirt gets to you."

"Well, this is a cave which is mostly rock so hopefully it won't smell so bad this time," Sky shrugged.

"Still, I got a bad feeling about this."

"We've got to rescue the pixies," Layla said determinedly.

"I know, I know," Brandon assured her. "I mean we didn't drop in just because we were in the neighbourhood or anything like that. But still . . ."

"I think that's enough chatter for now," Sky said from his place in the lead. Layla was right behind him, followed but Brandon, then Bloom and then Stella. "Keep your ears open guys. Who knows what's hiding in the shadows."

The five of them walked silently through the tunnels staining their ears to catch any murmur of sound that might tell them of an enemy that was trying to sneak up on them. But out of the five of them, only Stella heard the faint roar echoing down the tunnel.

"Guys? Did any one hear that noise? I heard something strange," Stella said in a scared sounding voice and a second later she tripped over her own feet in the dark and fell to the ground. "Who ever you are you don't scare me so just bring it!"

"What the . . ?" Brandon asked, looking back to where Stella was and a sudden blast of light caused his eyes which had become adjusted to the lack of light ache. Blinking, Brandon gradually saw that the painful light was in actual fact Stella transformed in full winx form, scepter and all.

"I'm ready for action now," Stella told them all, holding her scepter out in front of her.

"Could be a false alarm," Bloom reminded her. "I didn't hear anything."

"Unfortunately I think Stella might be right," Sky confessed, and at that very second his fears were confirmed with a roar echoed down the tunnel, and whatever made it sounded close. "Huh?"

Surprisingly it was Stella who took control first. "Okay, you guys go and try and find a way out of here and make it fast," she ordered them, gripping her scepter tightly and the others obeyed without any argument. Bolting as fast as they could in the dark, the group ran until they were forced to stop when a large, iron set of double doors blocked their path.

"We've gotta get through that door!" Layla shouted.

Sky tried to push the doors open but they wouldn't budge, and he quickly saw why. An old fashion looking lock was fixed in the center of the doors. Inscribed on it were two dragons with an evil looking spider in the center of them and one look at it told Sky that he was not going to be able to pick it quickly if ever. "It's locked."

"Get out of the way!" Stella ordered, flying in and spelling the door with the magic from her scepter. Her sun rays started to burn through the iron lock, but then golden magic suddenly stared to vanish into the lock like water seeping into the ground.

"That door just absorbed your magic!" Bloom exclaimed in horror.

"We'll blow it open then," Brandon finalized. They were running out of time and had no other options. Besides, who said saving your skin didn't have to be fun? "The PHA should be able to handle that, don't you think Sky?"

Another roar filled the tunnels and this time it sounded dangerously close. "Ah. You better hurry," Bloom advised, looking back over her shoulder. "Look!"

Out of the many other tunnels came six long necked shadow monsters. They had no visible eyes but they had a set of very obvious fangs that filled a drooling mouth and each of their four legs was clawed. And to top it all off, a long, powerful looking tail slashed behind them like an anger snake, and all six of them were moving in on the group of teenagers. While the girls freaked out a little the two boys get their gear together to bust open their only escape route.

"You're gonna need the detonator module for this Brandon," Sky advised his friend. The last thing they need on top of all this was for Brandon to blow his face off.

"Alright. We're good to go," Brandon said, pulling out PHA and some explosive putty from some unseen pocket (4). "Bloom! Distract those guys!"

"Where the hell is Riven when you need him?" Sky complained as he and Brandon set up the PHA. Behind them, Bloom and Layla transformed into their winx forms and joined Stella in trying to take out the shadow monsters. "That sneaky little thief could probably get this thing open in half a second."

"I'm sure that when Saladin was picking the support team he wasn't expecting an underground cave labyrinth to have a door," Brandon said, attaching the PHA bomb to the door. "Besides, this is more fun."

Sky shot his friend a disapproving look, but he forgot all about it when he heard Bloom cry out in a slight panic, "My power's not working!"

"Bloom!" Sky hissed, pulling out his phantom blade and bolting back towards to girls, abandoning Brandon to finish to bomb on his own. He was not going to let anything happen to Bloom and it had nothing to do with the fact that it was what his duty stated.

"They're shadow monsters. A sun blast should get them," Stella mused out loud. "Stand back now!"

Without waiting for confirmation that the others had done what she said, the Princess of the Sun and the Moon blasted the monsters with an intense light that made all the other teenagers flinch at the sudden pain that filled their eyes. But it also made all the shadow monsters vanish.

"Nice one Stella," Bloom congratulated with a proud grin.

"Take cover!" Brandon suddenly shouted to the others from his place safely behind a rock. The other four found similar hiding places and Brandon hit the detonation switch. The blast that followed was so strong that Brandon could feel the tremors of it go through the ground under his feet and it successfully blew the lock to pieces. Stepping out from behind his rock to view the carnage, Brandon couldn't stop a grin from spreading across his face. "Awesome."

"Let's get out of here fast!" Bloom suggested as more shadow monsters arrived to replace the ones that Stella had just defeated.

Sky wasted no time and bolted over to the slightly smoking door and kicked it open. Sky had seen enough movies where the heroes finally get the locked door open only to discover that there were more of their enemies on the other side or a giant wall of water, and fortunately none of that was waiting on the other side of this locked door. "It's clear! Let's go!"

The two boys ran through the door and the three fairies followed them with their wings. Unfortunately the shadow monsters were also right on their tail so Sky wasted no time in trying to shut the right door while Brandon got started on the left.

"They're coming!" Layla shouted as the boys were close to shutting the door completely but one monster stops them by sticking its head through the crack. Twisting its long neck, the monster snapped at Sky who was luckily just out of reach.

"I'll get 'im! Hang on!" Brandon told his best friend, switching his stance so he was pushing the door with his back. Reaching into that unseen pocket again, the squire pulled out his green phantom hunting blade that he had packed at the last minute just in case. Throwing it in the air only re-catch it in order to change his hold on it, Brandon then stabs the monster in the foot, embedding his green blade deep into the monsters flesh. It pulls back with a wail of pain and the boys were finally about to shut the door. But since it was no longer locked there was no way of stopping the monsters from reopening the door once it was no longer guarded. Fortunately, Layla had an answer to their problem.

"I'll seal the deal," she told the boys once she had flown to the ground. Using her powers, the Princess of Tides welded the doors together with a strange, pink kind of liquid that no one could seem to identify. A second later it set and held the door shut.

Brandon was impressed. "Cool."

"How did you do that?" Sky had to asked, glancing between the pink substance and the fairy that had created it.

"I'm from the Realm of Tides. I can turn water molecules into any shape," Layla explained and she spelled five more lines across the door with the same pink substance to ensure that the door was well and truly locked.

"Sweet power."

"Thanks," Layla smiled, but that grin quickly faded and was replaced by an exhausted look. The aquatic fairy suddenly looked unwell and she sighed deeply. "I feel so tired."

A bolt of panic shot through everyone as Layla sunk to her knees and transforms back into normal clothes. Her dark skin was beaded with sweat and hands were trembling. "Are you okay?" Bloom asked her, but Layla only responded with a slight nod of her head.

"Layla, allow me to help you up," Sky said, formally offering her his hand. He was half expecting her to decline his help, but instead she accepted it.

"Thanks," she said as he helped her to her feet. The prince was too busy checking to see if Layla was physically fit to continue, so he didn't see the small look of jealousy that flashed across Bloom's face. Half a second later, the red head had schooled her expression again. (5)

"Let's get moving," Bloom suggested, and the group headed off down the tunnels at a jog to get as much distance between them and the monsters as possible. But it wasn't long before they had to slow down again.

"I'm sorry," Layla apologized, breathing heavily. "I just feel so drained."

"Don't worry Layla," Sky told her, placing a supportive hand on her shoulder. Again, a small flash of jealousy crossed Blooms face but no one noticed it in the dark. "Why don't you set the pace so that we're no pushing you too hard? Or we could stop of a minute and let everyone rest?"

"No! We've got to rescue the pixies. They may not last much longer," Layla said with a determined expression and she started of walking through the tunnels. Left with no other choice, the other four teenagers followed her.

* * *

"So, do you wonna head back over to Alfea?" Timmy asked, pulling the sweatshirt Tecna had given him over the summer over his head. He and Riven had returned to Red Fountain a few hours ago and after putting the squad ship through its shut down procedure, had discovered that they had nothing to do but sit around and wait till Sky and Brandon radioed them to tell them to play taxi again.

"And why would we want to do that?" Riven asked from his place lounging on Brandon's bed. He had gotten change into his civies much faster than Timmy had so now he was just waiting around till they worked out what their next move was going to be.

"Well, Tecna said that she was going to set up a magical link between her and the group going to Shadow Haunt so that way we can track them."

"So basically you want to spend the day watching a computer screen to see if some goes bad knowing full well that if something does actually go wrong that we are hopeless to help them? I mean, they're over an hours flight away, and that's just to the entrance of the caves."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Not really. Let's go."

A quick levi bike ride later, Timmy and Riven pulled up in the quad of Alfea and came to a stop not far from where Tecna, Musa and Flore were walking. Flora was holding Bloom's pet rabbit Kiko in her arms and all of them had a worried expression on their faces.

"Hey Tecna," Timmy greeted. "How is everything working out?"

"Something interfered with our signal and jammed the tracking device so we lost our connection," the digital fairy told him with a look of anguish.

Timmy's stomach sank. "That's really bad news."

"Let's try and regain contact," Tecna suggested. "Come on."

Climbing off their bikes, the boys followed the girls inside so they could go to the girls dorm to used Tecna's main computer to get the magical link working again. Timmy moved ahead to walk along side Tecna, while Riven decided to tail the group from a small distance. Musa looked over her shoulder at him once and then when back to ignoring him.

"Don't worry Tec. I'm sure the two of us will be able to get it working again," Timmy assured Tecna. "I mean, I doubt you'll be able to find a better partner in this particular tasked."

A faint blush made its way into Tecna's cheeks as they finally made it to the door to their dorm. "My thoughts exactly."

* * *

"How are you feeling now, Layla?" Sky asked as the group continued to walk through the tunnels. Stella was using her scepter to light the way for them so there was no longer the risk of something sneaking up on them, but Layla still looked pretty tried so Sky couldn't relax just yet.

"I'm okay," Layla assured him. "My powers just feel a little zapped. I guess the caves are draining them just like they did last time."

"Don't worry about not having your powers, Layla," Stella said cheerfully. "We totally have your back."

"Yeah, we all stick up for each other so have no fear," Brandon told her. "If those shadow monsters come back I'll be right there to protect you."

Layla did not look impressed by his noble offer. "As long as Bloom and Stella have their winx, I'm not worried."

"Well, er . . ." Brandon stammered, not sure how he was supposed to respond to that. He had nothing against a chick being strong and independent, but did she have to shot him down all the time like that? So he was born with a Y chromosome but that was no reason to treat him and his friends like dirt. If these caves were as powerful as he had been led to believe, then Stella and Bloom's power might not last much longer and then what will they do? He and Sky were specially trained for this kind of thing. Was it so horrible for them to help?

"Guys. Wait," a weak voice cut Brandon out of his thoughts. The group stopped and turned around to see Bloom – who had been walking at the back of the group – with her head drooped and her knees shaking. The powerful fairy was only standing with thanks to the wall and she did not look well at all. "I don't feel so," she started before dropping to her knees and transforming back out of her winx form, "good."

Sky stared in horror as the girl he was completely smitten with collapsed to the ground and lay there without moving. "Bloom!" he cried out in alarm, bolting over to her side. "Oh Bloom. Please be okay. I'm here."

"Sky?" Bloom whispered weakly, but at least she was able to respond.

Bandon, alarmed by what had happened to Bloom, turned sharply to regard his dear Stella. "Are you okay Stella?"

The radiant Princess of Solaria had become very pale in an alarmingly short amount of time, and she too was drooping slightly in her stance. "I'm losing my winx too."

Brandon was instantly by her side and half a second later Stella too started to collapse. Her boyfriend caught her before she fell and the fairy transformed back in his arms. Planting a kiss on the top of her head, Brandon held her strongly in her arms. "Shh. Don't speak. Save your strength. Don't worry. I'll look after you."

Sky pulled out a torch and quickly examined the girl lying on the ground. "Hey, how do you feel?" he asked, reaching over cautiously and placing his hand on her shoulder gently so not to hurt her. At his touch, the last Princess of Sparx sat upright, though she still looked a little unwell.

"I've never experienced anything like that before," Bloom said as Sky helped her stand. Brandon moved closer to them with a torch in one hand and sickly looking Stella in the other.

"I feel really woozy," Stella mumbled weakly and Brandon tightened his arm around her.

"The caves are draining power much faster than they did last time. Which means that it will be more difficult for our winx to re-generate," Layla informed them all.

"What should we do?" Bloom asked.

"All I know is that we don't want to run into the Shadow Phoenix without our powers cause if we do we're history."

"I heard of that guy. He's like so super evil being that resides in Shadow Haunt, right? And that's the reason why this place is so negative, huh?" Brandon asked.

"That's right," Layla nodded as the group started walking again with the boys helping their girlfriends along. "That guys a nightmare in physical form. Last time I was here, he almost finished me for good."

"You fought the Shadow Phoenix?" Sky gasped. "No way."

"I didn't do very well," Layla admitted and the conversation ended at that point. The two boys helped Stella and Bloom until the two girls felt fit to walk on their own again. It was about then that they came across a part of the caves where there were even more tunnels running every direction, so they relied greatly on Layla's knowledge of the area to guide them through. "I recognize this area. Look. The passage ways are this way. We just have to find the right one. The one that goes to Shadow Haunt."

"Wait for us!" Bloom shouted as Layla's desire to rescue the pixies over took her better judgment and she bolted off on her own. "We'll help you look!"

"I'll check the group of passage ways over there!" Brandon told them before he too bolted off without them.

"Brandon!" Sky shouted, but his friend was gone. "Idiot! First rule of exploring a hostile area; never split up."

"Let's find Layla since she knows her way around here a bit better than us," Bloom suggested and her, Stella and Sky took off down the tunnel after the Princess of Tides.

"Wow. We're not where I thought," Layla admitted as Bloom, Stella and Sky joined her out of the ledge. The tunnel had led them out into a massive cavern that Sky couldn't see the bottom of. Several other tunnels led to ledges just like the ones they were standing on now and from the looks of it they had come to a dead end.

"There you are," Bloom said, heading over to where Layla stood.

"Hey girls, look!" Layla said and everyone followed her pointed finger over to a lower ledge and walking out from the tunnel that led to it was Brandon.

"Snookums!" Stella called to her boyfriend which had somehow become separated from them.

"Hey!" Brandon called back. "There's so many different passageways I have no idea how I ended up down here."

"Brandon, come back up here!" Layla shouted. "I don't think we're in the right place."

'Didn't I just say that I have no idea how I ended up down here?' Brandon thought to himself but he was just about to turn around and try and find his way back through the caves when a deep roar echoed down the tunnel he had just traveled up. 'Oh no.'

Brandon watched in horror as a long necked shadow monster made its way down the tunnel to where the squire was trapped on the ledge thanks to the massive drop that was beyond it. Pulling out his green broadsword, Brandon held it defensively out in front of him. There was no way he'd be able to run from this battle, so his only option was to fight.

"Brandon!" Stella wailed from the ledge above him.

"I'll go get him!" Layla told the others. He winx must have regenerated because the aquatic princess was able to transform into her winx from. Another shadow monster had started to make its way to join the first one and before Brandon could get to either one of them, Layla flew in and shot one of them. Her magic was still too weak to do any real damage and in retaliation the shadow monster spat a mouth full of its sticky saliva in her direction, effectively sticking her to the wall. "Ah! Bloom! Stella!"

"She needs us!" Bloom told Stella who was watching the fight from above.

"Ready," Stella agreed.

The two fairies jumped up into the air, ready to transform and shouted in unison, "Let's get 'em!"

Unfortunately, nothing happened.

"No. We're still out of winx," Stella noted.

"But what do we do to help Brandon and Layla?" Bloom asked.

"I'm not sure if there's anything we can do," Sky told her regretfully.

Meanwhile, back on the ledge below the shadow monsters continued to move in on Brandon and the trapped Layla. The monster that had stuck Layla to the wall edged closer to the trapped fairy, bearing its teeth and salivating.

"Oh no you don't!" Brandon told it, lunging forward and slicing his broadsword through its neck. The decapitated shadow monster collapsed onto the ground and its body dissolved itself like a wisp of cloud. "I told you I'd be right there to protect you incase those shadow monsters showed up again. You can always count on a hero to watch your back."

"Ah! I think you better worry about your own back, Brandon!" Layla advised in a slightly panicked voice. "Look!"

The remaining shadow monster regarded the place where its companion once filled with its eyeless face, and then let out a roar of rage. Moving forward with deadly determination, the shadow monster backed Brandon back out onto the ledge so it could conduct its revenge for its fallen comrade.

"Don't worry about me," Brandon said, gripping his broadsword. "If anyone comes up against me they'll feel the wrath of maximum sword power! Yeah that's right! (6)"

Backing out onto the ledge so he made a less confined area to move, Brandon did a back flip behind rock and waited for the monster to follow him. The monster blindly followed him out of the tunnel, where Brandon was waiting for him with his broadsword ready.

"Take this!" Brandon cried as he slammed his sword into what he thought would be the think hide of the shadow monster. What he failed to take into account was that shadow monster were called shadow monsters because a majority of their body was made up from shadows in the same way people are mostly made up of water. The blade cut through the monsters flesh easily and then followed through to smash into the ledge that both Brandon and the monster were standing on. The rock ledge instantly started to crumble.

"Brandon!" Stella screamed in anguish as she watched her beloved boyfriend fall into the seemingly endless gorge below him. While the others remained rooted to the spot in horror, the Princess of Solaria ran a few feet backwards and then turned to face the edge of the chasm. "Hang on!"

"Stella! You're out of winx!" Bloom shouted at her as Stella started to run towards the edge of the ledge. The red haired fairy tried to move forward to stop Stella, but Sky quickly broke out of his trance and held her back.

"No!" he exclaimed. He had just lost his best friend to that drop. There was no way he was going to lose her too.

Stella, however, was too far away for him to stop, and she was running at a dead sprint towards the edge. Bloom and Sky watched helplessly as Stella came to the edge of the ledge and hurled herself off of it.

"I'm coming Snookums!" Stella cried as she dropped into the blackness below and vanished from Bloom and Sky's sight.

"Oh no!" Bloom wailed, dropping to her knees as tears filled her eyes.

"Bloom," Sky tried to comfort, but he too was reeling from the loss of Brandon so he was in no position to console her.

"Stella," Bloom sobbed and her crying echoed off the cold stones that surrounded them. "Stella."

* * *

_(1) That obviously follows the same line as a famous Simpson's quote where Homer says to Lisa 'I'll practice you'. I had a friend in high school who used to quote the Simpson's all the time (a drink coke, that's it) and that was one particular quote he used to say all the time until we absolutely hated it. Serious, he'd slide it into conversation like twelve time a day. It's only now, years later, that I find it funny again_

_(2) See Brothers at Arms, __Chapter Eleven – Junior League_

_(3) When I first saw this episode, I scoffed at the way Sky said that too_

_(4) I have no idea where that unseen pocket it, but it's pretty impressive. __It's like something out of Doctor Who.__ They can hold a whole bunch of stuff down there, including weapons, PHA stuff, torches, anything. You name it, those guys probably got it in their back pocket  
_

(5) _Did anyone else that Sky and Layla were getting awfully cuddly down in the caves? And here I was thinking that he was utterly hooked on Bloom and she was a feminist who was still having trouble grasping the idea that we really do need a couple members of the opposite sex around. Layla pisses me off sometimes _

_(6) 'Feel the wrath of maximum sword power' has got to be one of the dorkies lines 4Kids ever came up with. It's right up there with Sky's line to Bloom at the end of last season when they beat the witches, 'you've gotta give me five'. I tried to manipulate that sentence so he didn't sound like such a tool, but there's only so much I can do_

_TBC._


	4. Queen of Perfection

_Okay, so sorry it's taken me so long to update. I'm trying to get this story working in a way I like and there is one bit that's stuffing me up and unfortunately that one hurdle is causing me to get very unenthusiastic about this whole project. But I've been trying to get my ass is gear so I'm slowly chipping at that road block._

_Anyways, nemoxgirl, I guess this is a reply to your request for another chapter. Hope it doesn't disappoint._

* * *

**Chapter Four – 'Queen of Perfection' **

Riven stared moodily down into the quad of Alfea from his place perched upon the ledge of the Winx Club's balcony. His violet eyes watched without really seeing anything, so it look him a few minutes before it registered to him that he was in fact watching Timmy and Tecna. After spending hours trying and failing to get the link with Bloom and the others back on line, Timmy had suggested that Tecna go outside to get some fresh air and try to clear her head, but by the looks of it, it wasn't working very well. Tecna still seemed to be worrying her self sick and Timmy was trying his hardest to comfort her.

"Don't worry Tec. They'll be fine," Timmy told her. "You know how powerful Bloom and Stella are and what a great team they make together. They'll watch out for each other for sure. And that girl Layla seems pretty capable of taking care of herself. I mean, she's already been to Shadow Haunt once already and that was without any back up of any kind."

"But the caves at Shadow Haunt drain people of their powers at an alarming rate," Tecna said. "When Ms. Faragonda tested us in the Great Hall, I couldn't even transform. And that was just a simulation."

"Which is why Brandon and Sky went with them and I can't think of a better support team then those two. Sky won't let anything happen to Bloom and Brandon would be willing to go through torturer if it meant protecting Stella."

"I guess but I'd feel much better if the other girls and I were allowed to go," Tecna complained stubbornly, but Timmy knew exactly how she felt. "This is just like the time last year when Bloom and Stella went to Cloud Tower while we were forced to wait here with no word what-so-ever about how they were going. Why do they always have to go off on their own and leave us behind to worry?"

'She's got a point there,' Riven, who had overheard the entire conversation, thought to himself. Every time there was a dangerous mission of some sorts it seemed that Bloom, Stella, Sky and Brandon were _always _selected to go while Tecna, Timmy, Flora, Musa and Riven were all left behind to wait. What was so great about those four anyways? Sure, Riven would admit that Bloom's power was impressive and that Sky _sometimes_ knew what he was doing, but Riven was at least as good if not better than Brandon. The only difference between the two of them was then length of their criminal records. And Stella? Riven wasn't even going to start on how incompetent she was.

Riven was still lost in thought when he noticed some movement out of the corner of his left eye and a second later Flora stepped out onto the balcony. The flower fairy didn't notice that Riven was sitting a few feet away from her, so he was free to observe her for a moment without any objections.

Flora was one of those girls that Riven really didn't understand, but unlike most girls that Riven didn't identify with he didn't dislike her because of it. She was sweet, pleasant, caring and always sincere which was something Riven could never wrap his head around so therefore something he didn't trust. He grew up believing that everyone had something to hide and that they were only looking out for themselves. As a result, he was always weary of charity and sincerity. But he still liked Flora, even though he couldn't get how she would be so positive all the time. She was a pretty little thing as well with her long, brown hair and sparkling green eyes. She always had a fine pair of legs which Riven always liked in a woman. They weren't as nice as Musa's, but they were on display more often. When he thought about it Riven was actually surprised that no one at Red Fountain had ever tried to make a move on her but at the same time he really couldn't think of anyone that Flora would get along with in that sense.

Abandoning the thought in order to avoid another headache cropping up, Riven followed Flora's eye line to see what she was looking at and saw that she was watching Timmy and Tecna in the same way he had been doing before.

"It's not like you to worry Tecna," Timmy was saying. "You're usually so calm and logical."

"It's been hours since we lost contact," Tecna reminded him. "It's only logical to worry."

"Everything will be okay," Timmy assured her in a confident tone of voice that stated that he truly believed what he was saying. "I just know it is."

Tecna made a small whimpering sound and Timmy stepped over to wrap his arms around her in a comforting manner. Tecna warmed to his contact immediately.

A sharp stab of annoyance went through Riven was he watched the exchange. How was it that a shy, computer geek like Timmy was making more progress with Tecna than Riven was with Musa? Oh yeah, Timmy never pissed Tecna off to the point where she was no longer talking to him, Riven answered his own question. But since he couldn't rant about that without exposing how he really felt about Musa, Riven decided to get something else that had been vexing him off his chest instead.

"Saladin should have sent me instead of Brandon," Riven said, making Flora jump and spin around to look at him. "We'd already be back by now."

"I thought I was alone out here," Flora confessed to him.

"Well sorry," Riven growled, swinging his legs over the side of the railing. If she wanted to be alone, fine, he'd leave. But then Flora said something that made him freeze.

"I guess I just thought you'd be with Musa."

Riven's head jerked up at the fairy's name as a thousand horrible possibilities flashed through his mind about various disasters that that pixie could have found herself in. "Musa? Why?"

"Because she's really upset. I'm sure she could use somebody to talk to," Flora told him and Riven knew exactly why she had dropped that little bit of information like that. She wanted him to go find Musa and comfort her in the same way Sky or Brandon might do if their women were troubled.

'Well, I can't do that,' Riven thought stubbornly to himself and purposely turned his head away from Flora to avoid her sincere green eyes. However, he happened to turn his head so he was looking directly at Timmy and Tecna who were still 'comforting' each other in the quad. Riven's frustration at his own incompetence in regard to Musa quickly returned. 'Dammit.'

Flora waited patiently for Riven to respond, but when he failed to react she decided to step in. "I guess I'll go find her and see how she's doing."

Riven quickly jumped to his feet and then headed inside. There was no way he was going to allow a woman do a task that he was too cowardice to do in his stead. "I'll go, but what am I supposed to tell her? Everything's fine. It's probably not you know."

Riven moved through the Winx Club's dorm room towards the door but he stopped when Flora's soft voice said from behind him, "Would it hurt to be positive for once?"

"What?" Riven asked, looking back at the flower fairy. Her words had been spoken without any malice, and for the first time Riven saw how truly upset the poor girl was.

"I know that everything probably isn't fine, but it doesn't help to think that way," Flora told him as she also moved into the dorm room. Her eyes were down cast and she looked very meek.

"I'm just being practical," Riven tried to justify. "That's how they teach up to be at Red Fountain."

"No, you're just being negative, and that's something they don't teach you at Red Fountain. 'Don't talk about defeat or you'll be defeated'," Flora quoted something Brandon had said at the end of last year. "Isn't that right?"

"Yeah, they want you to think positive, but not be stupid. They're going into the Under Realm, Flora. To Shadow Haunt. That's not going to be a walk in the park for them."

"I know, but . . ." Flora started, but she couldn't seem to find any words beyond that point.

"Most seasoned heroes and fairies can't survive in such a negative environment and yet they expect a foolish squire, and Earth girl, a spoiled prince, a girl who refuses to accept that there are two genders in this universe and a ditzy blonde haired princess who has spent most of her life in a shopping mall to survive such terrain?"

"Riven . . ."

"This whole mission was doomed from start."

Somewhere throughout all his ranting, Riven had moved closer to Flora and now her body was standing mere inches from his own. He could sense the heat of her body radiating from her and he could feel her exhaled breath brush across his skin. If he wanted to, he could probably reach across and kiss her with ease given their proximity, but there wasn't a chance of that happening, especially when Flora raised her face and Riven saw the tears that welled in her eyes.

"Maybe the mission is doomed," Flora said in as even a voice as she could manage. "But you cannot ask us to abandon our hope because at the moment hope is all we have."

Riven had no idea how to respond to something like that, but Flora's words and her unshed tears hit him harder than any physical blow could have. From his experience, Riven had always considered the worst in everything and then instantly assumed that it would happen at the most inconvenient time. After all, bad news never had good timing. But right now Flora – and indeed all of his friends – was asking him to let go of the past and change his dark, pessimistic ways of thinking. But Riven knew that wasn't going to be easy.

"Fine," Riven said with a sigh with feigned frustration. "I'll try, I guess."

A soft smile graced Flora's lips and she locked her green eyes directly onto his violet ones. Riven flinched in alarm as he felt Flora slide on of her hands into his and he stared at her with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Well, I guess that's a start," Flora smiled. "Now come on. Let's go find Musa."

And with that Flora headed for the door in search of Musa, dragging a baffled Riven behind her with her hand still fixed in his.

* * *

The cold air rushed past Brandon as he fell further and further down through the cavern. He narrowly missed hitting several rock ledges as he sped past them and he still couldn't see the bottom yet. Suddenly a ledge sticking out further than any of the other ones were started approaching him fast and Brandon instinctively reached out and grabbed it as he fell past.

"Shit!" Brandon cursed loudly as his fingers jarred themselves when they suddenly held up all his weight, but at least he had stopped falling. Struggling to pull his body up over the side of the ledge, Brandon felt the strength in his arms start to drain with each second that he failed to get onto solid ground. His feet scrapped feebly against the rocks in an effort to climb upwards, but it was no use. Brandon just didn't have the strength to save his own life.

"Brandon!" a voice cried, and it was shockingly close and familiar. Brandon craned his neck upwards and through the dark saw something falling down the cavern in the same way he had done seconds before. And there was no mistaking that blonde hair.

"Stella!" Brandon screamed in alarm. In a few seconds she was going to fall past him and down into the unknown where there was a possibility that she might not survive. "No!"

Pushing off the rock wall with his legs, Brandon abandoned the thought of dragging himself to safety and threw himself back into thin air just as he beloved princess fell past him. Reaching out as they fell, the two teenagers tried to grab hold of one another's hands.

"Brandon!" Stella wailed again, trying to make her arm extend even more then it already was.

"C'mon! C'mon!" Brandon hissed through gritted teeth. Finally, he felt Stella's smooth skin under his aching fingers and he quickly grabbed hold of her a firmly as he could. Dragging her through the air as they fell, Brandon pulled Stella into his arms just as the bottom of the cavern came into view. Below them was a large, underground river that was fed by vastly tall waterfall that the couple was currently falling parallel too. Covering Stella's mouth to avoid her swallowing any of the water that they were inevitably going to fall into, Brandon braced himself for impact.

Thanks to the waterfall, the water surface was rather broken up when they hit it, so the impact was not as bad as Brandon had anticipated, but the temperature of the water was so cold that it shocked Brandon to the core. With his body and mind reeling, Brandon resurfaced and realized that in his shock he had somehow let go of Stella. Looking around in a panic, Brandon felt a wave of horror colder and terrible than the river wash over him when he couldn't see his beloved anywhere.

"Stella! Hold on!" Brandon shouted as loudly as he could, given the fact that he had very little air in his lungs from the coldness of the water and his panic. Even if meant he was going to drown there was no way Brandon was going to leave this river until he found Stella. He just hoped that it wouldn't be too late.

And then, coughing and spluttering, Stella suddenly resurfaced and Brandon could breathe a little easier. Brandon once again pulled her into his arms as the pair of them continued to be washed down stream. Brandon had covered water situations in heroics class, so he knew that when caught in a position like this, the best thing to do was not to swim against the current, but rather move across it until you reach the shore. Except in all the rivers in all the underground cave networks, Brandon had to fall into the one which was flanked by two completely vertical cliff faces. Left with no other option, Brandon tried desperately to swim against the current which was quickly tiring him out.

It was about then that Stella started to scream. "Big rock! Big rock!"

As luck would have it, the current naturally carried them around the rock so avoided getting hurt, and as they were washed by it, Brandon made a lunge to grab hold of the rock with his only free hand. Just then, a massive wave hit the rock and flooded everything around it, but when the water level died back down a few seconds later, Brandon's left hand was holding onto the rock.

"Yes!" Brandon cheered, but his jubilation vanished when he heard Stella scream and realized that that wave had been strong enough to rip her from his arms. "No!"

"Grab my hand!" Stella shouted as she started to be washed downstream, but Brandon reacted quickly enough and was able to grab hold of her outstretched hand.

"Gotcha!" Brandon said, pulling her back closer to him. "Hang onto me!"

Stella complied by wrapping her arms around his waist as her continued to hold onto the rock. Once she was certain that she had a firm grip on her boyfriend, the Princess of Solaria spat out all the water that had gathered in her mouth. Unfortunately there was a whole lot more that had found its way into her stomach that she couldn't get out. "I've swallowed like half this river already."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Brandon couldn't help a tiny grin tug at the side of his mouth. "Just think of it as spring water only without the bottle."

Just then, the bottleless spring water swelled again as another big wave crashed into the rock with such force that it was able to once again rip Stella out of Brandon's arms. But the squire acted quickly and grabbed hold of her again before she drifted away from him.

"Hang on Brandon!" Stella shouted over the rushing waves, but Brandon was quickly loosing his grip on the rock. His fingers were still aching from when he jarred them trying to grab hold of a ledge while he was falling and the cold water was not helping him in the slightest. Gritting his teeth, Brandon tried to strengthen the hold he had, but it was hopeless. The only way he could shift his grip was if he used his right hand which was currently the only thing that was keeping Stella with him, and there was no way he was going to let go of her. "Don't let go!"

"Can you fly Stella?" Brandon asked her. At the very least he was going to get her to safety.

"My powers are," Stella started, but she was cut off by a small wave splashing her in the face, "gone."

Brandon notice with a sinking stomach that they were quickly running out of options. "If only there was a shore line."

"I've got a sure line for you; we're sure gonna drown if we don't get out of here," Stella told him and a second later another massive waves washed into them and it took Stella with it.

"No!" Brandon cried out in horror from his place still clinging to the rock. "Stella!"

* * *

Sky stared down into the blackness that two of his friends had vanished into in a state of shock. Brandon was his best friend . . . No, he was more than that. Sky loved Brandon like a brother and he didn't care that Brandon was technically his servant. Sky never considered him like that which is why the two of them were able to be completely honest and understand with each other even though they both came fro two different worlds. There was no one in the whole universe that Sky trusted more and Sky would have been more than willing to risk his life for Brandon.

And yet he had been forced to watch helplessly as his best friend fell and he had been even more useless in the protection of Stella. He had failed Brandon at the one thing that the squire would have wanted him to do had anything happened to him.

"Stella," Bloom continued to sob from her place kneeling on the rock ledge. Sky knew that even if he was in the right frame of mind that there was now way he could comfort her in the same way that no one could comfort him from the loss of Brandon, so the two of them just stood where they were, staring down into the blackness, lost in their own anguish.

And then, echoing out of the darkness below came the sound of someone screaming and there was no mistaking whose voice it was.

"Stella," Bloom gasped, scrambling to her feet. "She's alive."

"We've got to get down there," Sky said. If Stella was still alive, then there was a chance that Brandon may have survived as well. However, all plans for a rescue operation were put on hold for a second when Layla's cries for help started echoing up from the tunnel below.

"Help! This stuff burns!" the aquatic princess shouted from her place stuck to the wall by the shadow monster saliva.

"Oh my god. Layla," Sky gasped, turning around and bolting through the tunnels to try and find the one she was in. He could hear someone else running a little ways behind him, so he knew Bloom was following him. "I'm coming Layla!"

"It reeks too!" Layla added as Sky managed to find her.

Wasting no time, Sky grabbed hold of the saliva like gunk and tried to pull it off her but despite his best effort, the gunk continued to hold. "It's tough like rubber! Come on!"

"Hurry Sky! It stings!" Layla wailed.

Sky gave the drool one hard yank and it finally came loose allowing the trapped and exhausted fairy to fall into Sky's awaiting arms. The shadow monsters slim in combination with the draining power of the caves had left Layla temporally weakened to the point where she needed Sky's assistance to stand. Sky looked down at the fairy in his arms, unaware that behind him, Bloom was watching the pair of them with slightly narrowed eyes. "You okay?" Sky asked.

"I think so," Layla replied weakly.

"That stuff looked gross," Bloom said, purposely walking over to Layla and taking her hand to subtly break up the unapproved embrace "You okay?"

"Forget me. What happened to Brandon?" Layla asked, and from the bottom of the cavern came another one of Stella's screams. "Huh?"

"That was Stella!" Bloom confirmed, running to the cliff edge and peering over the side. "They must be down there still."

Sky and Layla joined her and also looked down into the blackness below. "Where?" Sky asked.

"Maybe they caught a ledge?" Layla suggested.

"Stella!" Bloom shouted. Her voice echoed several times around the cavern, but there was no reply from the Princess of the Sun and the Moon or her boyfriend.

Sky slipped his hand into Bloom's, wanting the comforting form of contact now more than ever. They had no idea whether or not Stella and Brandon were alive, but they had to find them, one way or the other. "Can you fly us down?"

"No," Bloom answered in a distraught voice. "This place has drained all my powers."

The prince then turned to address the aquatic fairy. "What about you Layla. Can you fly?"

In order to try and answer his question, Layla arched her back and tried to flutter her wing, but she just ended up crashing back to the ground with a loud thud that made both Bloom and Sky flinch. Sky moved over to see if she was alright, but Layla seemed more interested in ripping the slim off of her wings than accepting his help. "Not with this gunk on my wings."

While Bloom helped Layla to her feet, Sky moved over to look over the side of the ledge to see if he could figure out a safe way to get down to the bottom so they could look for Brandon and Stella. "Looks like we're gonna have to climb down, okay?"

"No, forget that," Layla instantly dismissed conjures up a ball of pinkish purple magic in her hands. "I've still got some power left."

Sky wasn't sure what she was up too, but he couldn't help but be impressed as she guided and twisted her aquatic powers to form the shapes she wanted. And when the light of the magic started to clear, a large, pink crane was suddenly on the ledge with them.

"Nothing rearranging a few water molecules can't solve," Layla told them proudly.

"Cool," Bloom said in awe. "So you can make anything you want just out of the water molecules in the air?"

"And actual water," Layla told her. "The only limitation is my own imagination. Now come on."

"Alright. I'll go first," Sky said, climbing onto the rope. Bloom followed him and Layla took up the rear. "Hang on tight. It's a long way down."

The drop was impossibly far, but Layla had made the crane so that the rope was taken out of the pink magical machinery itself to lengthen the cord as needed. With each passing meter, the dread grew inside of Sky to the point where it felt as though his guts had been turned to lead. The militaristic way of thinking that had been drilled into his mind told him to keep a clear head, but his heart still pounded in apprehension as they climbed closer to the ground.

'Please let them be okay,' Sky prayed.

When they finally reached the bottom, Sky wasn't surprised to discover that the ground was made up entirely of rock. The light was incredibly dim and there was a cold chill in the air. The carcass of the monster Brandon had slain lay still on the cold, rock floor with its insides spilling out. It wasn't a pretty sight. Sky shivered slightly. "Just when you thought it couldn't get any colder or darker."

"They down there?" Layla asked.

"Don't see 'em," Sky answered regretfully. He peered through the darkness, but he could find no trace of Brandon or Stella. "Guys!"

"Hey!" Layla also tried.

"Stell! Brandon!" Bloom shouted but she got so reply. "We just heard them."

"Listen," Sky silenced the two girls, straining his ears to try and catch the sound he had just heard. "Is that running water?"

"It's a river!" Bloom identified, looking over the edge of crevasse.

Layla looked surprised. Normally she could sense water from ages away, but she had somehow over looked this one. "A river?"

"Down here. Look!" Bloom told them, and Sky and Layla ran over to where she stood. A sure enough, below them was a wide, fast moving, underground river.

"I bet they fell in and were carried off," Layla assumed.

"So they could be alright?" Bloom asked hopefully.

"We don't know that," Sky corrected her. He wanted more than anything for his two friends to be alright, but he had been trained to never make assumptions. "We don't know what happened to them."

* * *

"Stella!" Brandon screamed as the blonde princess was carried away from him by the fast moving current. Ignoring his own safety, Brandon let go of the rock he had been holding onto and dived underwater in order to try and reach her before she got any further from him. The cold water caused his chest to constrict, but he ignored it and continued to swim towards his beloved.

'I will not lose you, Stella.'

Resurfacing, Brandon wasted no time in swimming over to the princess. "Stella! Gotcha!" Brandon said, grabbing hold of her again. Stella clung onto him tightly as Brandon looked around to see if he could find another ledge to grab onto, but what he saw was not something that he would have wanted to see. A large whirlpool lay in wait just downstream and it swallowed up the water and anything else that was brought to it with a terrible hunger. Brandon and Stella had to avoid it at all costs. "Hang on!"

Pulling out his PHA, Brandon pressed the button that activated the grappling hook function. Hitting another switch, the grappling hook was fired into the air with a long cable attached to it. Latching onto a rock, the PHA successfully managed to stop Brandon and Stella drifting any closer to the whirlpool.

"Now you pull that out?" Stella questioned, staring at the tool that probably could have saved them a lot sooner.

"I was saving it for an emergency," Brandon explained.

"Well good. I think this qualifies as one," Stella agreed. "By the way."

"Yeah?"

"Don't you ever let go of my hand again."

"You got it," Brandon promised her and he couldn't help a small grin tug at the sides of his mouth. But that smile quickly faded when the rock that the PHA was attached too started to crumble. "Great."

Just when Brandon realized that 'great' might no be the best of last words, the rock gave way and the couple was once again dragged under the surface of the water. The un-fightable force of the whirlpool sucked them into its vortex and Brandon lost all sense of direction as the current sent him spinning round and round. His lungs were burning for air and his consciousness was beginning to slip, but throughout it all Brandon kept his promise and never once let go of Stella's hand.

* * *

"If only there was a shore that we could walk along," Sky sighed, staring down into the river that had taken his friends. "Those rapids look intense. What do you think we should do?"

"Well, I'm not going to stand around and talk," Bloom told him and Layla as she started to move along the ledge edge.

"No Bloom, wait," Sky said, grabbing her before she could get too far. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to climb to that ledge down there and then dive in."

Sky's blue eyes widened in horror at the mere thought of her doing that. That river had already claimed Stella and Brandon. He wasn't going to let it take Bloom as well.

Layla raised another important point. "That river leads away from the pixies," she pointed out. "What about them?"

"She's right. We can't forget our mission. Back at Red Fountain we have a saying; the quest in more important than the heroes," Sky quoted Codatorta. The prince never exactly liked that saying, but he did understand the message behind it. Heroics and questing was a dangerous business, and sometime not everyone made it out alive. It was something that no hero wanted to go through, but it was something they had to be prepared for. That was just how life was.

Bloom however, didn't like the say or understand its message. "I'm sorry? What? What kind of logic is that? What about our friends?"

"They can take care of themselves but the pixies need us," Layla said, understanding what Sky was trying to say to them. Plus, she was extremely worried about her pixie friends that were still being held captive. "They may not last much longer."

"She's got a good point Bloom," Sky said gently. "Let's go rescue the pixies first. Then we can go looking for Brandon and Stella."

"So you're just going to abandon Brandon like that?" Bloom accused. "I thought you were supposed to be his best friend?"

"Bloom," Sky warned, trying to keep the hurt out of his voice.

"Well at least I now know how expendable you think of your servants as."

"Dammit Bloom! That's not fair!" Sky snapped. "You know I would do anything to find Brandon and make sure he's okay! Hell, he's been my best friend ever since I was seven, not just the last year, Bloom! But our objective here is to rescue the pixies! That's why we came to this place despite the fact that Ms. Faragonda warned us that it would be too dangerous for us! Our mission is to find them and although you might not always like it, I plan to follow the orders my superiors gave me!"

The two fairies looked stunned by Sky's sudden outburst. Bloom had gone very pale and her blue eyes were very wide as Sky's words hit her and the realization that this was exactly what Ms. Faragonda had tried to keep them from. The whole experience had left her rather shell shocked. "I . . . I . . ."

Sky's anger quickly faded and he hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry Bloom. I didn't mean to snap at you. You just gotta understand, Brandon . . . He's my best friend and I'm worried about him in the same way you're worried about Stella, though that's no excuse for me taking it out on you. I'm so sorry Bloom."

"Perhaps, but I was being childish," Bloom admitted in a small voice. "Ms. Faragonda warned us that this was going to be dangerous. But we can't lose sight of our mission. The pixies may not last much longer."

"That's right. Come on," Layla said, turning and heading off down one of the tunnels. "We gotta see if we can find the right tunnel."

Sky gave one last glance at the river and then looked at Bloom. "They'll be alright."

"I know," Bloom said, forcing a brave smile before heading off after Layla. "Hey, Layla! Wait up!"

Sky paused for a second and then followed. "They've got to be."

* * *

Brandon's eyes felt heavy as he slowly started to regain conciseness. He had no idea where he and Stella had ended up since the last thing he could recall was being sucked under water by the whirlpool, but he could feel sand underneath him as he lay on his stomach and water lap gently up against his lower legs, so he assumed they had made it to land somehow. Stella's warm hand was still cupped in his and he could hear strange voices talking. And no matter how badly he wanted to look around, he just couldn't get his eyes to open.

But that all changed when he heard the sound of Stella screaming.

"Ew! Brandon!"

Forcing his eyes to open, the squire quickly sat up to see the strangest pair he had ever come across. One was as thin as a rack, extremely pale and shorter than Brandon would be standing at full height. The little man had blue eyes that were exceptionally large and cherry red hair that was cut short at the front but turned into a pony tail that reached almost all the way down his back. He wore a loin cloth around his waist that reached to just above his knees and sandals that warped all the way up his calves. The other man wore similar clothes and pale skin but his body was worlds apart from his companion. This man towered over the other and had enough muscle to put most body builders to shame. He also carried a massive club in one hand that Brandon didn't like one bit.

"What's going on here?" he demanded to the beings that he assumed where the trogs that lived in the Under Realm. But instead of answering, the big trog with the club hit him over the head with his weapon and everything went black again.

* * *

Brandon could tell that he was moving even before he opened his eyes. He could feel the bobbing of the person that carried him as they walked and he could hear the sound of footsteps as well as a kind of scraping sound as something was dragged behind them. He could also tell without opening his eyes that his arms had been bound.

When he was finally aware enough to open his eyes, Brandon was surprised to find that not only were his arms bound but he was also tied to the back of the smaller trog who was carrying him as they walked. Behind the small trog was a stretcher which Stella was lying on, also tied up. The big trog walk in front, his club resting on his shoulder.

"What the . . ?" Brandon stammered at the bizarre situation he had found himself in.

"You are not in the right place," the small trog answered in a dreamy little voice. "I don't know where you go, but you don't go on the beach."

"What are you talking about?" Brandon demanded, unable to make sense of what the little trog was saying. "Put me down!"

"Please use you cave voices," the small trog said in the same dreamy voice, completely ignoring Brandon's order. "You'll wake the spirits."

"Hey, driver," Stella croaked weakly.

"Um, yes?"

"I think I'm about to hurl."

Brandon looked down in alarm at the princess who as lying on the stretcher below. The blonde girl had gone deathly pale and her honey eyes were dazed. She did not look well at all. "Hang in there Stella. I'm gonna get us – whoa!"

Brandon was cut off in mid sentence when the small trog unexpectedly fell flat on his face, taking with him the two teenagers he was carrying.

"Sorry about that," the little trog apologized, getting to his feet slowly. "I was startled by the Hemian Crystals. They're glowing unusually strong today. That's a sure sign that the cave spirits are sleeping."

"I don't care who's sleeping; Get me down from here!" Brandon shouted.

"All in good time. We cannot release you until you are granted your freedom by the Queen of Down Land. You are in her realm now, so you must obey her rules."

"But Stella's sick," Brandon objected, glancing down again at the princess who had fallen back asleep.

"We will be able to treat her in Down Land so please be patient and we will get there soon."

"What's the rush?" the big trog grunted. "The yellow haired one's more pleasant when she isn't talking."

"Hey! That's my girlfriend you're talking about, you big goon!" Brandon spat. The big trog looked over his shoulder sharply at Brandon, but other than that he didn't respond.

"He is not a goon. His name is Abrupto and he is a sentry of Down Land. My name is Sponsus and I am also a sentry. Our job is to patrol the borders of Down Land to help keep out any shadow monsters and any other dangers the cave spirits send out."

"So who are these cave spirits you keep talking so much about?" Brandon asked.

"They're the keepers of Down Land," Sponsus answered as he started walking again. "And if they get woken up they get angry and shake the tunnels and send out monsters. So we are to be quiet in the caverns."

"_Argh_, put a rock in it," Abrupto ordered gruffly. "The monsters don't come from any cave spirits. You know that. The queen just made that up."

"You'll have to forgive Abrupto. He's been in a bad place ever since Queen Amentia decided he and his fiancée weren't a perfect couple," Sponsus explained. "She made his girl marry someone else. Someone she thought was a better fit."

"That's enough!" Abrupto snapped, turning around to get right in Sponsus's face. "You may be in love with the Queen but unless you want that head of yours smashed like a jourgal melon you'll never mention her around me again."

Brandon couldn't stop a sly smirk spreading across his face at this revelation. "So, you're in love with the Queen, ay?"

Too embarrassed to respond, Sponsus's knees gave way so he once again fell flat on his face and Brandon and Stella had no choice but to fall with him.

"Ouch," Sponsus grunted, getting back up again. "Queen Amentia is a vision of beauty. Like the Hemian Crystals, she glows from within. She's a bit of a perfectionist, but that's only because she's so perfect herself. The opening up ahead has the prefect view of her palace. Look."

Craning his neck look over his shoulder, Brandon got his first look at Down Land.

"Whoa!" he gasped.

It was like nothing he had ever seen. The tunnel had led them to a massive cavern, in which an entire civilization lived. The city was made up of countless white stone buildings, which wound and circled in on itself like a maze. The entire cavern was lit by the Hemian Crystals, casting everything in an alien green light. Brandon could hear the murmur of the trogs voices from the city below and well as various other noises of domestic life. And rising up towards the roof of the cavern was a massive palace made up of sharp pinnacles of white stone.

It was all eerily beautiful, like landing on the moon or something.

"I'll tend to the girl and then we'll get you to the Queen to find out where you go," Sponsus told them as he and Abrupto made their way down the path into the city.

* * *

Abrupto left them as soon as they arrived at the palace, and both Brandon and Stella were released from their bounds. The still sleeping Stella was taken to a small room which to Brandon looked like a trog medical bay. The princess was placed on a bed with an anxious Brandon by her side.

"Your name was Brandon, was it not?" Sponsus asked as soon as the three of them were alone again.

"What? Oh yeah, that's right," Brandon answered, his attention still fixed on his sleeping girlfriend. "And this is Stella, my girlfriend."

"Such strange coloured hair she has," Sponsus noted. "No one in Down Land has hair as light as that. I for one have never seen such a shade before. Is it a common colour in the Upper Worlds?"

"Um, yeah. It is."

"I have not had much experience with Up Worlders before since we do not approve of visitors here in Down Land. In fact, no one really even enters the Under Realm, which is why I found it so very odd that I found two Up Worlders lying on our beach. And so very young ones at that. If you don't mind me asking, why is it that you have come to the Under Realm?"

"We came on a mission to rescue some beings that are being held captive in Shadow Haunt," Brandon answered. "I can't tell you any more than that."

"Shadow Haunt? Why, that is the central lair of the cave spirits."

"Really? Then your cave spirits must actually be the Shadow Phoenix, Lord Darkar (1)."

"Shh!" Sponsus shushed. "We do not speak the name of the Spirit Lord lest we wish to anger him."

"Sorry," Brandon apologized just as Stella started to stir. Abandoning the conversation, Brandon gave his full attention to his beloved. "Stella? Hey, blink if you can hear me," Brandon said and those honey eyes that he loved so much blinked at him once or twice. "No offence but you don't look so good. How are you feeling?"

"Brandon," Stella said weakly. "I had the strangest dream that we were captured by the ugliest people ever."

"That wasn't a dream," Brandon cleared up quickly as Sponsus cleared his throat.

Stella, realizing her blunder, forced a smile. "Hello there."

Sponsus was kind enough to over look the insult and moved closer to the bed. "Please fetch the water vase while I look at the girl," Sponsus said to Brandon. The squire got to his feet and Sponsus took the now vacant seat that was alongside Stella's bed. "Lie back dear."

Brandon grabbed the vase quickly so he could rush back to Stella's side, but that idea went out the window when he discovered just how heavy the vase actually was. 'Shit! How am I supposed to be expected to move this thing?'

"Let me give you an energy boost. This will help a little," Sponsus said to Stella, gathering a ball of energy into his hands. Once he had a firm hold on it, he started transmitting the power over to Stella to try and give her enough strength so she could be presented to the Queen. "You need some sunlight."

"You guys don't have a tanning salon down here?" Stella asked in the name of all things fashionable.

"To be perfectly honest with you, we prefer our skin to be rather pasty and pale," Sponsus confessed to her and Brandon finally made it to the bed with the vase.

"There you go," Brandon sighed with relief as soon as he put down the vase.

"Excellent," Sponsus smiled dreamily, dipping a sponge into the vase and absorbing the cool water inside. "Now put it back exactly where it was."

'You've got to be kidding me!' Brandon mentally screamed, but he did what he was told. After all, like Sponsus said, he was in Down Land now so he had to obey their rules.

"We're opposites, you and I," Sponsus said as he damped Stella's forehead. "I was just above ground picking flowers for the Queen and I could feel my power rapidly draining. If you stay down here much longer you'll – no! That doesn't go there!"

Brandon looked up to discover that it was him that Sponsus was talking too. The little trog was making his way over to the vase which Brandon was pretty sure was back in its original spot. "Dude, this was right where it was."

"No, this is right where it was," Sponsus told him, moving the base one inch to the right. "The Queen likes it here."

"You're queen sounds high strung," Brandon said as polity as he could. As if anyone would make a big deal if a vase was one inch too far in the wrong direction. No one was that pedantic.

"Oh, she's wonderful," Sponsus assured them. "Why don't you come see for yourself? Can you stand, Miss Stella?"

"I . . . I think so," Stella answered, slowly sitting up. Brandon instantly went to her side in order to assist her.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked her.

"I'm just feeling a bit weak is all," Stella told him as he helped her to her feet. "I think I need a little bit of sun."

Sponsus lead them to the front door of the palace where Queen Amentia always greeted anyone who wished to speak with her. Along the way Sponsus collected a bouquet of flowers that he had picked for the Queen that very morning. He claimed that every flower had been chosen for its perfection and Brandon could clearly see that the trog truly wished that this small act would grant him the Queen's favour.

"She'll be down soon. She has to wash her face fifteen times before stepping outside," Sponsus explained as they waited.

"Psycho' Brandon thought to himself as he kept his arms tightly wrapped around Stella. The sun fairy still did not have the strength to stand on her own, so Brandon wanted to get through his meeting as fast as possible so he could get Stella outside in order for her to absorb some strength from the sun rays.

A loud gong sounded through the palace as the front door opened and a group of identical women danced out. All of them had purple hair and were dressed in silks of the same colour. Brandon thought they resembled belly dancers and they looked quiet pretty for a group of trogs.

"Here she comes," Sponsus said excitedly as the seven purple haired girls danced around of a bit. Stella sagged slightly in Brandon's arms and the squire felt his worry for her grow.

The seven purple girls all end up in a line and the center most girl raised her hands to address Sponsus, Brandon and Stella. "Fall to your right knee."

Sponsus instantly obeyed and waved to the others to tell them to do the same. "Do it."

Stella did so without argument which was a clear indication of how weak she was feeling. Her skin was still frightfully pale and her breathing was laboured. Brandon gave her a concerned glance, but she paid no attention to it.

"Presenting the one and only, immaculately beautiful and fabulously perfect; Queen Amentia!" the main purple girl announced as the Queen of Down Land exited her palace.

Queen Amentia was a lot younger than Brandon expected her to be. Although Brandon was the first to admit that he was no expert in guessing trogs ages, he figured Queen Amentia to be somewhere in her early twenties since she had the body and manner of a mature women, but a small streak of youthful foolishness still existed inside of her. Her hair was long and was a dark indigo colour. She was skinny and pale like most trogs and her large eyes were the colour amber. Brandon found her clothes to be rather odd looking but he guess Sponsus was right; she was kind of beautiful, in a tall, skinny, pale alien kind of way.

"Queen Amentia, I bring you flowers from above," Sponsus announced, holding the bouquet out in front of him. Queen Amentia's regal and mature façade failed as she ran over to retrieve her gift.

"Flowers rule!" she giggled a surprisingly child like laugh, making Sponsus's blue eyes glaze over with delight.

"Flowers rule indeed my Queen, and so do you," he told her, his voice heavy with affection.

"It's true. I do," Queen Amentia agreed before smelling the flowers. "Thank you Sponsus. You may live another day."

Sponsus's face was an example of pure happiness and love, but it quickly faded when Queen Amentia's delight quickly turned to outrage.

"Wait!" she screeched, letting out a feral growl. Snatching a flower out of the bouquet, she held up for all to see. "Look at this petal! It's wilted!"

"But when I picked them they were perfect. They wither in the darkness," Sponsus tried to explain.

"_Grr!_ They are of no use to me!" Amentia hollered, throwing them over his shoulder. The bouquet hit one of the purple girls square in the face, making the other girls giggle. Amentia regained her composer and noticed Brandon and Stella. "So who are these Up Worlders?"

"The girls name is Stella," Sponsus introduced.

"Your hair. What a horrid colour."

Stella's eyes narrowed. "This diva better be glad that I don't have my powers or I'd – "

"Stella," Brandon warned, covering her mouth with his hand. Stella continued to mutter threats, but the hand muffled whatever she was saying. Brandon forced a nervous grin.

Sponsus continued on with the introductions. "This is Brandon. Her boyfriend."

Amentia studied Brandon's face intently with those large, amber eyes of hers, before a pleased smile curled across her lips. "Tell me Brandon," she said, moving closer to the couple. "Where did you get such a glorious face?"

"I take after my dad," Brandon asked, guessing that's what she meant.

"You know, it's perfectly symmetrical," Amentia pointed out to him.

Brandon felt an odd little wave of pleasure that someone noticed that about him. "You're right. A lot of people don't appreciate that about me."

"Hey!" Stella hissed sharply, stepping on his foot.

"What?" Brandon asked dumbly, before looking back at the Queen. She was staring at his in a disturbingly longing expression, like a child eyeing out their favorite candy off the shelf.

Sponsus noticed this look as well and a dreaded expression crossed his face. "My Lady, please don't be thinking what I think you're thinking."

"Brandon," Amentia said in a formal tone that told everyone that she was making a royal statement. "You shall become my husband."

The shock hit Brandon and everyone else like a ton of bricks. Sponsus collapsed right on the stop and the purple girls stared at the Up Worlder and their Queen in surprise. As for Brandon and Stella, the only thing they could seem to do was stare at each other and utter the same thing in unison.

"Er, huh?"

* * *

Flora lead Riven to a secluded part of the Alfea campus along the boundary wall of the school. With any other girl, Riven probably would have made some snide, perverted comment, but he couldn't do that with Flora. She was just too nice a girl for him to do that to.

"There she is," Flora said, coming to a stop so suddenly that Riven nearly ran into her from behind.

"Huh?" Riven grunted, surveying his surroundings and quickly saw who Flora was talking about. Standing a few meters further down the path with her back to them and her arms hugged around herself was none other than Musa. Even without seeing her face, Riven, who had studied the pixie more than he cared to admit, could tell that she was troubled, though she was doing her best to hide it.

Flora looked back over her shoulder had the burgundy specialist standing behind her. "Well? What are you waiting for? Go talk to her."

Riven glanced somewhat nervously between the two fairies. "What the hell am I supposed to say exactly?"

"What do you think Musa wants you to say?" Flora answered his question with one of her own. Riven continued to watch Musa with the same apprehension that one might have if they were asked to approach a lion, so Flora decided to give him one more little push in order to get him going. "Fine, I'll go if you're not up to it."

"I'm going, woman," Riven said sharply, moving towards the musical fairy. "Geez. What's the mad rush anyways? It's not like she's going anywhere."

Flora smiled softly to herself and moved back a little down the path so Riven and Musa could have a little privacy, but she stayed just close enough so she was able to hear what they were saying.

Riven had no idea what he was going to say to Musa or if she would even want to talk to him. She no longer seemed to be angry at him, but she still hadn't uttered a word to him since the start of year mixer. Fortunately, Riven was spared the awkwardness of starting the conversation when Musa spoke first.

"I'm not worried," she answered his unasked question.

"Okay," Riven replied, not believing a word of it. He waited quietly for Musa's act to crumble and it wasn't long before she started to show obvious cracks in her façade.

"Should I be?" she asked uncertainly, turning around so he could see the concerned look she had in those navy blue eyes of hers that Riven secretly adored.

"Well yeah. Those guys probably screwed up everything," Riven said without thinking and for the second time that day his careless words caused a fairy's eyes to swell with tears. But unlike Flora, Musa couldn't stop her tears from falling, although she could stop Riven from seeing her cry. As her tears spilled over, Musa moved forward quickly so her face was buried into Riven's chest. Riven's body went ridged as bolts of pleasure and panic shot through him. Musa's proximity was completely intoxicating and Riven's hands started to move before he was even aware of it. His sensitive fingertips brushed across Musa's bare arms, sending new waves of delight surging down Riven's spine and a second after he froze.

'I have no right to do this,' Riven thought to himself. He had no right to hold her like this after the way he had so callously toyed with her emotions last year. He had given up pursuing her in order to be with Darcy who had lead him down a path of sinful pleasure and wicked delight which now left him feeling tainted.

"Don't you dare tell any one I cried," Musa told him sharply between sobs as Riven forced his arms to drop by his side.

"I won't," Riven promised her. He could feel her tears seeping into his shirt but he made no move to comfort her. Instead he stood perfectly still, ignoring the fact that she was even crying at all which was probably what Musa would have wanted considering how proud she could be and waited until she had cried herself out.

"Do you really think I should be worried?" Musa asked, sniffing away the last of her tears. She was still pressed up against his chest and neither teenager looked as though they were going to change that.

Riven paused before answering, trying to figure out for himself what he believed. His natural instincts said that mission was a doomed to be a failure, but Flora's voice still echoes around his mind telling him to think differently.

_Maybe the mission is doomed, but you cannot ask us to abandon our hope because at the moment hope is all we have . . ._

"I dunno," Riven confessed. "But I reckon those guys are more than capable of taking care of themselves, even with that fool Brandon with them."

Musa gave a small hiccup of a laugh and then shifted her head so that her cheek was resting against Riven's chest. "I can hear your heart beating," she told him and Riven felt a small grin tug at the side of his mouth at how childlike and innocent she sounded.

"So I do have one after all. What a surprise."

"You idiot," Musa grinned, giving him a small shove. The smile that was tugging at Riven's lips grew bigger and it took all of Riven's will power to try and straighten it out.

"Whatever, pixie."

"Fairy."

"Whatever."

* * *

_Brandon, you shall become my husband . . . _

Those six words kept repeating over and over again around Brandon's mind, crashing into each other and tumbling in an endless lope. All other thoughts ceased to exist as those six words continued to play and everything the word 'husband' exploded throughout his brain it sent a chilling shiver down his spine.

_Brandon, you shall become my husband . . . _

She couldn't be serious, right? Brandon was aware that Amentia was the Queen of Down Land so her word was law down here, but there was no way he was going to be forced down the aisle to marry some girl that he had only met two minutes ago. He refused to do it.

Amentia, however, wasn't giving him a choice in the matter.

"Guards!" Amentia called and two thin, pale men with four arms came running out of the palace at their Queens command. "Bring my new fiancé into the palace. From there we shall begin the official pre-wedding perfection ritual. And someone remove Sponsus from my steps. He's ruining the front view of the palace."

"What? Wait a minute!" Brandon protested as the two guards tried to seize him. "I didn't agree to any of this!"

"Brandon!" Stella cried as the two guards pushed her out of the way. Without Brandon's support, the princess's legs folded beneath her and she collapsed to the ground.

"Stella!" Brandon shouted out in alarm as the two guards dragged him towards the front door. The energy boost that Sponsus had given her was starting to ware off and she was once again sickly pale and trembling. Brandon knew that if Stella didn't get her energy back soon she wasn't going to survive, but the only way she could do that was if she got into the sunlight. And given the fact that they were in a cave there was very little chance of that happening in Down Land.

"Don't worry about that yellow haired freak with the tiny eyes," Amentia told Brandon. "Once you're married to me we'll be the most perfectly matched couple this world has ever seen."

"Don't be too sure about that since I don't plan on getting married anytime soon," Brandon growled through clenched teeth. There was no way he was going to let this cave queen order him around. He was not one of her subjects and he had control over his own life.

Amentia found his objection to be funny and gave a small giggle. "How cute. He talks as if he has a choice. I am fast approaching my twenty-third birthday and I absolutely must by married when my age is an even number and I refuse to wait until I am twenty-four since it is one year before my cut off date of twenty-five. Therefore we must be as married as soon as possible. It's for the best though, since long engagements are so untidy. So much can go wrong if you give it enough time so we shall be wed as soon as all arrangements are finalized."

"Are you listening to me? I don't want to marry you."

"Like I said; you don't have a choice," Amentia said, walking over to where Stella sat on the stone floor unable to stand thanks to her weak legs. "You're still hanging around? You're cluttering up be door step now get out of here. Shoo!"

"I'm not leaving without him," Stella told her in a voice on the verge of tears.

Although Brandon's heart swelled with the thought of Stella refusing to give him up to this skinny queen, he also knew that she couldn't stay here. Not if she wanted to live. "Stella! No! You can't stay down here much longer! You have to get back to the sunlight!"

"See? He wants you to go bye-bye, now go bye-bye," Amentia told her regally heading inside. The guards holding Brandon dragged him inside as well. "Your boyfriend is with royalty now."

"I am a princess you know," Stella voice carried through the door just as it snapped shut. The door closed with an echoing bang and it Brandon is had the metallic sound of a dungeon door.

"Stella," Brandon whimpered as the guards lead him into a large room in the center of the palace. Against one wall was a massive pyramid like set of stairs that led up to a pair of thrones and directly opposite that was a row of busts of what appeared to be trog couples. The occasional bust was of likeness of a creature that wasn't a trog, such as one that looked kind of like a horse, but other than that they were all the large eyed trogs. And right at the very end was a likeness of Amentia next to a headless bust.

"You should take a moment to consider just how lucky you are," Amentia said as soon as the guards had been dismissed. "I have had countless suitors over the years and none of them had reached my standers in the way you have. You're a very fortunate man, Brandon. Not only do you get the divine pleasure of introducing yourself as my husband, but you will also become the King of Down Land."

"Um, if you don't mind me saying so, but aren't you a bit young to be a queen?"

"How sweet of you to say," Amentia blushed coyly. "Actually I made my parents step down as King and Queen so I could assume that title since Queen Amentia has such a better ring to it than Princess Amentia don't you think?"

"Er, I guess so."

"But enough chit chat. We must start preparations for our wedding. You of course will have to go through a cleansing since you must have caught something horrid from that contact with the yellow haired girl. She did not look immaculately clean."

"Hey! That's my girlfriend you're talking about!" Brandon snapped.

"Not any more she's not," Amentia told him in a sing song voice.

Brandon resisted the urge to scream . . . though just barely. "Look, why would you want to marry me? I mean you don't know anything about me."

Amentia took no notice of what he was saying and turned her attention to the empty bust that was alongside hers. "You're head would look so perfect on this bust."

Brandon wasn't sure what she meant by that. "You're gonna chop my head off?"

"A likeness, silly boy," Amentia explained. "This is the row of royal couples and I've been waiting for the perfect face to go next to mine."

"I never thought I'd wish I was ugly," Brandon thought out loud.

"Come to me. Once we have kissed you and I shall be officially engaged," Amentia told him, leaning forward with her lips puckered.

"Ah! Stay away from me!" Brandon panicked, jumping out of the way. As soon as he was free he scrambled to his feet and bolted up the massive stair case to the thrones in order to get away from the psychotic Queen. "I'm in love with somebody else, you got that?"

"Look at you, next to the throne. Oh, you'll make and excellent king," Amentia gushed before she started to climb the stairs herself. "Only when you ascend the stairs you need to skip every other step just like I'm doing now."

Brandon had found himself in some pretty hair raising situations from time to time, but he can honestly admit that he had never been more terrified as he was when Amentia placed her foot on the top step of the stairs. Disregarding is own safety, Brandon jumped right back down to the bottom and was alarmed to discover that Amentia was somehow down there waiting for him.

"Ah!" Brandon screamed in fright. He had no idea how Amentia did that but it scared the living daylights out of him. He knew there was a witch at Cloud Tower that could move at impossibly fast speed, and Brandon had the feeling that Amentia might be a good challenge in a footrace. But that didn't change the fact that there was no way Brandon was going to marry the Queen. "Look, I'd rather be eaten by a zung zung worm than marry you."

"Goodness, you're so dramatic and passionate. Those are qualities number two and five on my check list. Now be a man and pucker up," she told him, leaning in again.

Brandon wasted no time jumping clear of her advances and as soon as he was free he made a run for it down the row of busts. But his efforts once again proved to be futile when Amentia once again appeared out of nowhere, leaning against her bust. Skidding to a halt, Brandon ducked behind the empty bust to try and avoid her. "Stay away from me!"

Amentia's eyes narrowed as she got tired of this little game. "Why do you resist me?"

"I'm in love with Stella!" Brandon told her again and this time it actually sank in what he was saying. He was in love with Stella. He had been telling Amentia that repeatedly without even realizing how he really felt. Brandon had never been in love before but he was certain that's what he was feeling towards Stella. He was one hundred percent, hopelessly, crazily in love with Stella and he liked how that felt. Now all he had to do was avoid marrying Amentia so he could tell Stella that.

"Guards!" Amentia called, throwing her hands up in the air. The guards this time as big as Abrupto came running to her command. "Fetch that yellow hair Up Worlder."

An insane amount of relief washed over Brandon as it started to look like she had given up. "Good. I knew you'd understand."

But Queen Amentia of Down Land was not a person who gave up on her quarry so easily. "Put her to work in the mines at least until she expires for good."

"No!" Brandon cried out in panic. If Stella stayed down here too long she would surely die. He couldn't let that happen, not when he just realized how he felt about her. "You can't do that!"

"I can and I will unless you give in," Amentia said in a tone that indicated that she wasn't kidding around anymore.

Brandon could not remember ever being in a worse situation. He had to choose between refusing Amentia's advances and risking Stella's life, or giving in and face the rest of his life locked in marriage to a girl he didn't love in a place he didn't really like. But even though he hated to admit it, he knew exactly what he needed to do.

Hanging his head in defeat, Brandon said those dreaded words in a small voice.

"Fine, I'll marry you."

* * *

Sky, Bloom and Layla walked in silence through the tunnel, listening for anything that would alert them to another attack by the shadow monsters. Layla was in the lead, using her connection with the pixies to try and pinpoint their location. Sky had volunteered to take up the rear in case of a sneak attack from behind, but also because that meant he could keep an eye on Bloom.

The last Princess of Sparx had become extremely withdrawn ever since they had decided that rescuing the pixies took greater priority over finding Stella and Brandon. Sky was equally as upset by the decision, but it was the only one they could make. If they didn't find the pixies soon there would be no mission objective left to save. But that didn't make the decision any easier to make and it was definitely didn't make the way Sky had taken his frustration out on Bloom right.

"Hey, Bloom? I'm real sorry about before," Sky said softly as they walked. Layla was far enough ahead so he was pretty sure that she couldn't hear what he was saying, and if he was wrong she gave no hint to indicate so. "I was frustrated about losing Brandon, but that's no excuse for the way I acted. It's wasn't fair to take it out on you, and I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," Bloom apologized. "I felt the same way about Stella and so I blamed everything on you even though I was one of the people who insisted we come here in the first place. Do you think you can forgive me for how horrible I've been?"

"Of course I do since there's nothing too forgive," Sky told her. "You can't apologize because you're worried about your friends."

"I know, but those things I said about how you act towards Brandon was so uncool of me. I know that you've never treated anyone like that, let alone your best friend. I don't even know why I said something like that. I've just kind of been in a bit of a mood since we got here."

"Why is that?" Sky asked her, and even in the dim light he could see her blush slightly.

"I dunno. I guess that I . . . I . . . I kinda thought that you were flirting with Layla."

Sky's blue eyes widen with shock. "What? No. I was just trying to be nice to her. Tides and Eraklyon have always had good relations over the years so I guess we were just continuing on from there. I would never . . . You know I'm not that kind of guy."

"I know, but last year you flirted with me while you were still technically dating Diaspro."

Sky physically flinched at the name of his ex fiancé. "That was different. Diaspro and I never dated. It was our parents who decided that we should be married and I had no say in it. And as far as flirting with you goes, I couldn't help that either. I couldn't help but get to know you, flirt with you, kiss you," Sky said, slipping his hand into hers. "I'm crazy about you Bloom."

Bloom blushed again, but this time it was accompanied by a pleased little smile. "I'm kinda hooked on you too," Bloom confessed, giving his hand a quick squeeze and Sky couldn't stop a grin from spreading across his face. "And, do you think it would be terrible of me to ask you not to see Diaspro again."

"No, and I promise I won't unless I absolutely have too."

"Thanks."

"Hey you guys! Come look at this!" Layla called from ahead of them.

"What is it?" Bloom asked, letting go of Sky's hand and jogging forward until she caught up with the Princess of Tides. And when she did she came skidding to a halt in awe. "Whoa."

The walls of the caves, which had been nothing but plain rock for a painfully long amount of time, was suddenly covered with large, pointed crystals that gave off a strange, green glow. Sky had been through many tours throughout the extensive gem mines of Quartz when he had been forced to visit Diaspro in her realm, but even those priceless gems of Quartz had nothing compared to the beauty of these crystals.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Layla said, drinking in the sight for a second before continuing on her way. "I saw a few of these crystals last time I was here, but this is the first time I've seen so many in one place. They're beautiful."

"I'll say," Bloom agreed. "I wonder where they came from."

"My guess would be from the water," Layla answered, pointing to the small trickle of water that was running down from the ceiling.

"Kind of like limestone? Yeah, maybe, though I've never seen limestone ever look even remotely as stunning as these crystals," Sky commented as they left the green lit area of the cave where the crystals were and reentered the darkness that they had been surrounded by before. The water continued to drip from the cave roof and fell around them, filling the silence with a rhythmical beat.

"Listen to the water making music," Layla said in a distant tone of voice, as if she was listening deeper than the others.

"Beautiful," Bloom agreed with a small nod. "Musa would love this. It would go great with her new song."

Sky grinned at the thought. "She could sample it and drop a beat with it."

Bloom smiled softly at him, and Sky could tell that her thoughts were with the friends she had left behind at Alfea, but those pleasant thoughts were shattered when several shadow monsters came tearing down the tunnel behind them.

"So much for the peaceful moment," Layla muttered.

"Run!" Bloom shouted, taking off at a sprint down the tunnel. Sky purposely waited until the girls had taken off before he started running after them. Saladin and Faragonda had entrusted him with the task of protecting them and he was not going to forget that in a moment of panic. He was a Red Fountain Specialist after all.

"Bloom! Try to transform!" Layla urged Bloom as they ran.

Bloom focused her power and her clothes changed in a flash, but they just as quickly changed back. "I still can't do it!"

"If we don't do something these things are going to transform us into lunch!"

Sky had to agree with Layla on that one. There were far too many monsters and they were in far too confined a space to fight in. He needed to think of something to get them out of this mess and quick because, as he glanced back over his shoulder, he saw that they were running out of time. "They're gaining on us!"

One of the monsters which had razor sharp spikes covering most of its body sent a shower of its spikes flying through the air towards the group. The teenagers were able to avoid the darts but in her efforts to dodge them Bloom lost her footing and fell to the ground.

"Bloom!" Sky cried in alarm, skidding out to a halt and pulling out his phantom blade. The fire haired fairy quickly scrambled to her feet and followed Layla to her feet and followed Layla down the tunnel into a large circular cavern. Without a word the three teenagers turned to face their pursuers. Bloom and Layla's powers may not have returned, but they couldn't keep running blindly and at least in this cavern there was room for them to fight.

'Alright, bring it on,' Sky thought, shifting his grip on the hilt of his sword. But before he could react, the long tail of a shadow monster knocked him off his feet and sent him flying head first into a rock.

That's when everything went black (2).

* * *

Sky had no idea how long he had been out cold, but even before he could muster enough strength to open his eyes, Sky could feel his consciousness returning to him. He could hear someone talking but for the life of him he couldn't work out what they were saying or who the voice belonged to. But he was certain that he had heard it before.

He could feel a warm glow wash over his body and when he was finally able to open his eyes, he was surprised to discover a strong light filling the room as if a part of the sun had suddenly appeared in the cavern. The source of the light was hovering at the top of the cavern and in the centre of the light was a person.

'Stella?' Sky thought groggily as he sat up slowly.

The princess of the Sun and the Moon had found a way to regenerate her power and she was now in her full winx form complete with her Scepter of Solaria. And her face was set with a look of stern determination that Sky had never seen Stella wear before.

"The seeds!" Bloom suddenly exclaimed, pointing to the magic seeds that Ms. Faragonda had gifted to the girls before they had left. Layla must have tried to use them while Sky was knocked out.

"They're growing!" Layla cheered in delight. Activated by Stella's magic, the seeds open and tiny sprouts burst out. The little sprouts quickly grew into silver trees with circular bulbs on the end of their slightly curled branches and those bulbs gave off and intense white light. The sudden wave of light reduced the shadow monsters to vapor and in a matter of seconds that threat had passed. The light of the trees faded and they withered away. Stella slowly lowered herself to the ground and her friends quickly crowded around her.

"Good job Stella," Sky congratulated. It probably wasn't the best greeting he could have given her all things considered, but he was still feeling groggy from hitting his head so it was all he could come up with.

"Stella!" Bloom squealed in immeasurable delight, running forward to embrace the friend she had thought she had lost. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

"You can't get rid of me that easily," Stella assured her, hugging her tightly back.

Though he couldn't help but wonder where Brandon was, Sky silently let the girls have their reunion. A small smile spread across his face as he watched them, but it quickly faded as the caves began to tremble. "It's some kind of quake!"

"Uh oh," Layla gasped, struggling to keep her balance.

"Bloom!" Stella exclaimed as a large rock feel from the ceiling and crashed into the ground not far from where the Keeper of the Dragon Fire stood.

"Come on!" Sky ordered, taking off at a sprint down one of the tunnels. They had to find a place that was stable to be in. However, all the efforts lead them to a three way junction with no clue of which one to take.

"Which path?" Stella asked in a slightly panicked voice.

"This one!" Layla decided confidently, taking the tunnel to the furthest left. The four of them sprinted madly down the tunnel while the rock around them continued to shutter. "I can see a light ahead!"

Pushing forward with all their strength, the four teenagers burst out of the tunnel and into the open air. The refreshing scent of fresh air hit them instantly and Sky's mind cleared of any thought as he drank it all in. He salvaged everything about it, imprinting every last detail of how that air tasted onto his memory. He didn't think he had ever breathed air that tasted so good.

Once he had inhaled his fill, Sky glanced at each of the three girls. Bloom had collapsed to her knees, gasping for air after pushing herself so hard. Layla, though standing, was in a similar state and Stella had transformed back out of her winx form. But none of them looked to be injured which made Sky let out a deep sigh of relief. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah," Bloom panted. "Just a bit puffed is all."

Sky observed the suns that were sinking over the Arid Mountain Range (3). A whole day of walking and they were still no closer to finding their goal. But they couldn't continue like this. They needed some time to rest. "Maybe we should stop here for tonight."

"What about the pixies?" Layla demanded instantly.

"We can't do anything to help them if we're too exhausted to stand," Sky reminded her. "We've been walking all day and haven't had a chance to rest. If we stop for the night then maybe your powers will return and then we'll be able to look for Shadow Haunt."

Layla didn't look pleased, but she nodded. "Alright, but we leave first thing in the morning."

"Sure," Sky agreed, before turning his attention to Stella. There was something he needed to know. "Stella, where's Brandon?"

A sad expression crossed Stella's face, but it was coupled with honey eyes that burned with a terrible rage. The Princess of Solaria filled her friend on everything that had happened since they became separated from being washed down the stream to meeting the Queen of Down Land.

"And now that dratted Amentia is going to force Brandon to marry her whether he wants to or not," Stella finished in a trembling voice, but whether it was from rage or sadness Sky couldn't tell.

"Don't worry Stella. We'll stop that from happening," Sky told her firmly, watching the last sun sink behind the horizon. "I promise you that."

* * *

Since enrolling at Red Fountain, Brandon had been in some pretty terrifying situations over the years. He had been attacked by a group of frost giants, he had taken on a full grown hunter troll, he had gone head to head with a Minotaur, he had wrangled mustang dragons, he had clashed with the Trix Sisters, battle the Army of Decay, snuck into Cloud Tower, traveled to Sparx and shared a room with Riven.

But all those things paled compared to how horrified Brandon felt as he watched Queen Amentia move in to seal their engagement with a kiss.

"Come to my arms," she insisted, but Brandon kept backing away until he had walked right up to the busts of the royal couples. A wicked looked flashed in Amentia's eyes, and she resembled a cat which had just cornered a mouse. "Kiss me."

As Amentia leaned in, Brandon made a break for it and jumped clear from her advances. But Amentia would not give up so easily. Following after her fiancé, Amentia backed Brandon up into a corner and no matter how desperately he search, Brandon couldn't find a way out.

"Now I've got you my love," Amentia smiled proudly, leaning in a pressing her lips against Brandon's.

When Brandon and Sky were both young boys, Brandon's father had taken the boys on a fishing trip in order for the boys to try their hand at the sport. Sky had naturally excelled at it – as always – but Brandon really didn't have that patience for it. On the odd occasion that he had caught a fish, they were usually too small so Brandon had to throw them back and out of tradition he was forced to kiss them before he let them go.

As a boy, Brandon had never liked kissing fish and he couldn't help but notice some similarities between kissing a fish and kissing Amentia. The contact was cold, wet and kinda slimy thanks to her lip gloss. In fact the only thing that was different was that Amentia smelled better than a fish, but he didn't like it one bit. It was nothing like when he kissed Stella. It just felt so wrong.

And unfortunately, it was only the beginning.

"Guards! Begin the official pre-wedding perfection ritual!"

* * *

_(1) It's never really explained just who the Cave Spirits that Sponsus goes on about are, so I'm making it Darkar since I guess he'd be kinda like a god to the trogs  
_

_(2) I find with this long chapters that I write myself to a point where I don't want to write anymore, so it's quite helpful when I'm able to knock the person who's perspective I'm writing from out cold  
_

_(3) In the next episode, Tecna tells Livy that the group left sometime yesterday, so obviously at some point the suns got to go down at they've got to rest, so I'm pointing it there_

_Wow. That's a pretty long chapter. TBC._


	5. Rescuing the Pixies

_Well, I'm off to New Zealand for a week but I figured I better get one more chapter up before I leave so enjoy!_

* * *

**Chapter Five – Rescuing the Pixies **

No one slept very well that night.

Sky had created a fire for him and the girls using his flint and tinder, but it did very little to ward off the darkness of the mountains. Though all four of them were exhausted, none of them were able to fall any deeper than a light doze for various reasons. For Layla, the thought of the still trapped pixies kept her from finding any rest, while for Stella the thought of Brandon being held by the Queen of Down Land stopped her from getting any sleep. Bloom tried to stay awake in order to try and hear any approaching shadow monsters and poor Sky couldn't sleep because of all three reasons combined.

So when the first of the suns rose up over the edge of the horizon, everyone wasn't rested but they were ready to get moving none the less.

"We should go back to the tunnel we ran out of yesterday," Layla suggested. "Maybe we can get back into the Under Realm from there."

"Good idea," Sky yawned, shaking his blonde head to try and wake himself up. He had a massive headache and a large bump from when he was knocked out by the rock and his neck was rather stiff thanks to the hard ground he had tried to use for a bed, but he knew he had to focus. They needed to rescue the pixies today so they could stop Amentia from forcing Brandon to marry her all in one day because Sky really didn't want to spend another night in the Under Realm. He had been trained to be able to survive in harsh terrain, but he'd still take his bed over a patch of dirt any day.

The tunnel that they had escaped outside through the evening before had completely collapsed from the quake that had caused the caves to shutter violently. Looking at the rubble, Sky suddenly realized how lucky they were to get out alive, but that didn't answer their dilemma on how they were going to get back inside the caves to look for Shadow Haunt.

"We could use magic to move the rocks," Stella put forward, looking at the ruined tunnel.

"Except our powers haven't returned properly," Bloom pointed out. "I don't think I could conjure up enough magical energy to lift a pebble let alone a boulder."

"And we definitely can't clear it with our hands," Layla said. "It would take far too long. We need to find the pixies soon or they're going to die."

"We know Layla, but fretting about it isn't going to help," Sky told her but for thinking deeply. "The PHA could teleport up through the rock but it only last for twenty seconds."

"And what happens if we haven't found an opening and the time runs out?" Stella asked him.

"Basically we'd be stuck inside the wall for all eternity," Sky told her bluntly.

"Nah-uh," Stella instantly disagreed. "No way am I ending up as an Under Realm wall flower. Not gonna happen."

"What about if we found a spot where we know for sure there was a tunnel on the other side?" Bloom asked. She didn't seem to keen on the idea of getting trapped inside a rock wall for the rest of her life, but she could clearly see that they were running out of time and options.

Sky observed the collapsed tunnel closely. There was definitely no way they could pass through that rock, so it looked as though they were going to have to find a place to chance it.

"We'd have to be pretty certain," Sky answered Bloom's question before turning to face the girls again. "You know these mountains best, Layla. Is there like another tunnel running near by?"

"I'm not sure," Layla confessed before moving over to the ledge of a massive chasm. "But I think if we went down to the bottom of this chasm we'd be on the other side of Shadow Haunt's main chamber. I think."

Sky moved over in order to stand next to Layla to see what she was seeing. He didn't like the sound of that 'I think' but a bit of an idea was better than no idea at all. "Then let's get down there."

"And how do you purpose we do that?" Stella asked him.

"We walk Stella," Layla told her sternly.

"Oh that sounds fun and all, but I think I'll stay here and wait for the bus."

"Stella, we can't go after Brandon until we get the pixies," Bloom reminded her friend. Stella's eyes became hard with a steeling determination and her face became suddenly sever.

"Let's get going then."

Sky tried to hide a grin at Stella's sudden motivation "Okay, are you guys ready to go back down there?"

"Hopefully this will be the last time," Layla muttered.

"Personally, I can't wait," Stella said with unexpected enthusiasm. "Nothing says good times like a sunless, monster ridden cavern."

"It's a goods thing you got over your fear of heights Stella," Bloom grinned.

"Seriously now," Stella said, moving over to the edge of the chasm and looking down. The sun fairy paled a few shades and a touch of panic entered her honey coloured eyes as she observed to drop below her.

"Stella, maybe you should wait up here since your powers seem to, you know, drain faster down there," Sky suggested, trying to help Stella maintain some of her dignity. His words, however, seemed to trigger Stella's determination, overriding her fear. The princes wasted no time in being the first to start climbing over the edge of the cliff.

"Hello, we've got pixies to save and the sooner we do that the sooner I can stop that pasty cave queen from marrying my boyfriend!" Stella told them all with an animal like growl.

"Hold up," Layla stopped her, picks up a large bit of bark that must have fallen off the trunk of an unseen tree that had somehow been able to survive in the Arid Mountain Range. "I think I've found a faster way to get down there."

"Huh?" Bloom and Sky said in unison.

"Have you guys ever snowboarded before?"

* * *

Coming from a wealthy family, Sky had visited snow resorts virtually every year since he was three though it wasn't till he was five that he started to be taught how to ski. He had picked up the sport easily, often giving his parents and the people minding him panic attacks when he'd fly down the mountain with no fear of the speed he was traveling at (1). When he was thirteen, he had tried his hand at snowboarding and although he had spent the first few days falling on his ass, Sky eventually got that snow sport down pat as well.

Boarding on a piece of bark, however, proved to be a lot harder than boarding with a snowboard partly due to the fact that pieces of that bark would fall off from time to time, but mainly because they lacked proper edges and bindings to keep you strapped to the board (2). Sky's balance wavered slightly every now and then, but he was able to ride it out and continue down the hill without wiping out.

Layla, on the other hand, wasn't put off by the lack of bindings and proper edges, and was game enough to go off a kicker. She kept the board with her by pulling off an indy grab and landed it easily.

"You're pretty good at this," Sky noted to Layla as they flew down the steep slope.

"I board all the time back in my realm," she confessed to him as they both dug in an edge and slid to a graceful stop. Looking back up hill, the two teenagers suddenly realized that they were missing two of their party.

"Where are Bloom and Stella?" Sky asked, and his question was answered for him when the two fairies suddenly came into view and by the looks of it they had absolutely no control over their 'boards'. Bloom was just buttering it down the slope, traveling at a speed that was far too fast for her and Stella wasn't doing any better.

Jumping slightly and twisting her 'board' so that it was going across the hill, Bloom almost managed to pull off a kind of graceful stop but she ended up catching an edge and fell flat on her face. Stella, however, didn't even try to stop and went flying into a rock, making both Sky and Layla physically flinch at the impact. They had both had run in with various obstacles during their time boarding – trees, rocks, snow fences, poles, people, etc – so they knew how unpleasant such run ins were. And that crash looked like it hurt.

"Stella!" Bloom screamed in alarm as her friend sat up and rubbed her head. Amazingly, the Princess of Solaria looked completely unscathed.

"Being hard headed comes in handy sometimes. Check it! I cracked the rock!" Stella said in a surprisingly proud tone of voice (3). The surprises continued as Stella got to her feet and dusted herself off. Sky stared at her in awe. A crash like that should have resulted in broken bones, not broken rocks. But a close look at that rock told Sky exactly why the princess had survived such an impact.

"I hate to tell you this, but these aren't rocks down here. They're petrified monster droppings," Sky told her, picking a small bit of it up.

Stella instantly blanched. _"Eww!"_

But Sky saw what that must mean. All the shadow monster of the Under Realm spent all their time in the caves, only venturing out into the sun on cloudy days and when it was absolutely necessary. And even then they rarely ventured very far from the tunnels. That could only mean one thing.

"It means there's tunnels near by," he pointed out, crushing the 'rock' in his hand. He was so caught up with the prospect of getting back into the Under Realm that it didn't even register to him how gross that might be, though he would remember once he got back to Red Fountain and wash his hand meticulously. Digging around his unseen pocket, Sky pulled out his PHA. "In fact I bet there's one on the other side of this wall."

"And what if it's just solid rock?" Bloom inquired.

"We implode, but I don't think it will be," Sky answered.

Stella wasn't convinced. "Maybe I'll just wait here."

Bloom, however, wasn't going to let her stay behind. The red head had gone though a lot of grief when she thought she had lost her best friend so until they got out of the Under Realm she was not going to let the blonde princess out of her sight. The Keeper of the Dragon Fire took firm hold of Stella arm and pulled her into the circle that she, Sky and Layla were forming. "Come on Stella."

"Okay, but if I never return, Bloom, I want you to have my wardrobe," Stella said, overlooking the point that if she didn't return there was a good chance that Bloom had shared the same fate.

Activating the PHA, Sky felt the little cyber tool alter their molecular structure so that they could pass through the rock. It was hard to tell what was happening, but a white light surrounded the group and the next thing Sky knew he had teleport through the rock wall and jumped out into a tunnel. Bloom was right behind him, and then Layla flipped out. But there was still one person from their group missing.

"Hey! Where's Stella?" Bloom gasped.

"Weren't you holding her hand?" Sky asked her in a slightly panicked state. The people of Solaria would not be impressed with the Prince of Eraklyon if he was responsible for encasing their only princess in solid rock. That and Brandon would kill him a thousand time over.

"What hand?" Bloom exclaimed. "We all turned into thin air or whatever!"

Sky's panic increased as a flash of white light filled the cave, a clear indication that the PHA couldn't keep the portal open any longer. "The portal's closing!"

"Oh no!" Bloom wailed. She was not going to lose Stella again. Hitting the wall with her fist, Bloom was almost on the verge of tears when Stella got thrown out of the portal just as it closed. "There you are! I was so worried Stella!"

"I'm never doing that again," Stella informed them all from her place on the ground. Bloom moved over to help her up, but that changed when she noticed something in Stella's luscious, blonde hair.

"Oh look, you picked up a stowaway," Sky grinned, noticing the same thing Bloom did.

Bloom held up Stella's little passenger for the princess to see. "A wumble worm."

"In Eraklyon they say the early bird gets to eat the worm," Sky said, moving over to the two girls as Stella scrambled to her feet. "And that it brings you luck."

"Well, since you were the first one here go ahead," Stella offered him, causing the three of them to all burst out laughing.

"Guys," Layla said, silencing all three of them and when they saw what she was looking at, their eyes all widened. "We made it. It's Shadow Haunt."

* * *

Amentia's pre-wedding perfection ritual had started immediately after she had kissed him, officially sealing their engagement, and had continued through the night. Brandon had been forced to go through several rather embarrassing bathing sessions where several layers of skin had been taken off with all the scrubbing and his hair had been washed more times in one night than most Red Fountain boys do in a semester.

So it was an extremely exhausted Brandon that stood without a fuss as several servants went ahead with the next part of Amentia's torture plan.

"Before you can marry our queen, you must receive seven doses of pristine complex B," one of the servants informed the squire.

"What? And, er, how do you give me that? Is it some kind of pill?" Brandon asked and to answer him one of the trog servants stabbed him soundly in the butt with a needle. Brandon wasn't scared of needles, but that still didn't mean that he liked them since they always hurt like hell. "Ow! Okay look! Go tell that wacko queen of yours she's pushing my limits!" Brandon snarled, glaring at the servant that had just jabbed him, but while his back was turned, another trog stuck him again with the second dose. "_Argh!_ Forget this!"

Brandon may not have been the most patient of people, but he always prided himself on the fact that he could endure a lot of things if the situation required. But even though he knew that Stella's life may be on the line, there was no way he was going to go through five more doses of that pristine complex B crap. Heroics class just didn't cover that topic.

'This type of shit was never mentioned in the mission debrief!' Brandon thought viciously to himself as he completely snapped and took out his annoyance by pushing the ceremonial robes that Amentia had picked out for him to the floor. "I'm not going through with this!"

His childish outburst made the squire feel a little better, and he anger quickly shifted to amusement was he watched the servants rush around like chickens with their heads cut off in an attempt to clean up mess before anyone saw it and reported it to the Queen.

"We must clean up!" one of the trogs gasped in a panicked voice. "Hurry!"

"She's got you guys on a leash," Brandon noted, watching them scurry. As pretty much a servant himself, Brandon got no pleasure out of tormenting the help like the way he had seen Diaspro do whenever he went with Sky to visit her, but he couldn't help but want to laugh at the insane way the trogs followed Amentia's obsessive compulsiveness.

It was either that or cry.

"Have you finished grooming the groom?" a voice asked from the doorway.

"Huh?" Brandon gasped, looking up to see Queen Amentia enter the room. The servants pale slightly – if that was even possible given their colourless skin – at the sight of their queen due to the fact that they had not yet finished tidying up the robes that Brandon had pushed to the ground.

"Queen Amentia," one of them stammered and all the servants quickly moved to stand in front of robes to try and block Amentia from seeing them.

"Now remember, you have to . . ." Amentia started, but she quickly trailed off as her amber eyes noticed the pile of robes that were in a heap on the ground and she let out a horrified gasp. "What are those ceremonial robes doing on the floor?! My groom will not wear robes that have touched the floor not even once! Now talk! Who is responsible for this disaster?!" Amentia demanded to know before selecting one of the servants at random and glared at them accusingly. "Was it you?!"

The servant started to sweat and actually started to look a bit green. Brandon suddenly recalled how Amentia had told Sponsus that he could live another day when he had presented her with flowers, and Brandon suddenly got the sick feeling that Amentia was willing to execute people if she felt like it. The servant let out a groan, too terrified to respond.

"It was me, your Highness," Brandon quickly jumped in. He was not going to let Amentia hurt people on account of him. "It wasn't these guys."

The servants all shot him a thankful look while Amentia's furious expression quickly changed to one of delight.

"Taking the blame," she gushed, cupping his face with her odd, three fingered hand. "Oh, what a noble thing to do! What a perfect husband you'll be."

"No, I really did do it!"

"Oh Brandon, you don't have to pretend with me," Amentia told him, giving him a slightly seductive look before turning on heel and heading for the door. "I have my own preparations to make before the wedding this afternoon. Servants! Finish this stage of the pre-wedding perfection ritual as quickly as possible! Then burn those robes and get him a new set identical to the ones I've selected! The groom needs to be dressed and perfected by this afternoon! Got it?"

"Yes your Majesty," all the servants answered in unison.

"Oh and send him to the royal beautician expert! His eyebrows are looking a tad too wild for my taste!"

"Yes your Majesty!"

"What's wrong with my eyebrows?" Brandon asked himself, running his fingers over them. They looked fine to him. He wasn't sporting a mono-brow or anything like that. They were just normal, guy eyebrows.

"Clearly Queen Amentia believes them to be less then perfect, and anything less then perfect is not acceptable in Down Land," one of the servants answered, picking up the robes that Brandon had knocked to the ground. The groom to be suddenly felt extremely guilty for getting these guys in trouble like that. They weren't to blame for his current situation.

"Oh man, I'm sorry you guys. I didn't mean to get you into trouble or anything," Brandon said, crouching down to help them pick up the robes. "Is she always like that?"

"Mostly yes," one of the trogs answered, gathering up all the robes that were to be burned as instructed. "That's why we are so pleased that Amentia has finally selected someone to be her husband."

"You are? Why?"

"Because if Amentia has someone bond closely to her, then maybe she'll put all her attention on him and lift some of the pressure off of us normal people," the trog explained.

"So what, I'm like a martyr for you people?" Brandon asked, and his stomach sank as the trog nodded. Not only was he doing this to protect Stella, but now he had to act as a shield for every trog in Down Land? "Well that sucks."

* * *

The main chamber of Shadow Haunt was like nothing Sky had ever seen before. The roof and the floor of the cavern could not be seen given the great size of it, but around the edges various tunnels and hidden ledges ran in all directions, vanishing into the shadows of the caves. Several small waterfalls trickled down the walls and its eerie music was coupled with what sounded like bats chattering away in the darkness. But in the center of the cavern, existing on a rock ledge was Lord Darkar stronghold which was built out of the very rock itself.

It was actually a rather ghastly thing to observe.

"So, that's Shadow Haunt. What do you think it's like on the inside?" Bloom asked, looking at the fortress.

"Probably drab and dreary," Stella answered.

Layla, who had been looking for a way inside, suddenly pointed to a rope bridge that stretched across from the ledge they were on to one closer to the castle. "We can take that bridge."

Sky observed the bridge and the massive drop below it and then instantly had doubts. "Er, I don't think Stella's going to want to go up there."

"Sounds to me like _you're_ the one who's scared. Maybe you should hang tight and let the fairies take it from here," Stella suggested in a cocky tone of voice. "You're slowing us down anyway. Without you we can just fly."

"We're not flying, Stell," Bloom instantly rejected.

"Oh, right, cause why use our magic?" Stella _scoff_ed sarcastically.

"Stell, because our winx drains big time down here. We have to save it for when we really need it."

"Come on," Layla said, getting sick of all the bickering. With the ease of a mountain goat she walked up the rock towards the bridge and the others were right behind her. "It looks rickety. If it breaks just hold on and swing to the other side."

Bloom's eyes brightened at the thought. "We used to have a ride like this at this water park on Earth."

"Water park?" Sky questioned. Why would water need to be kept in the protection of a park? Was water really that scarce on her planet? But Bloom never got a chance to explain to him as she followed Layla out onto the bridge. Sky followed suit, but Stella remain rooted to the rock she was standing on.

"You people are forcing me to admit; I'm still scared of heights!" Stella quickly confessed. "There, I feel better now."

Bloom couldn't help but grin. "We knew that already Stell."

"It's embarrassing," Stella flushed.

"It's okay Stella. Just take it one step at a time," Sky urged.

"I can't do it!"

"Stella, if we don't hurry up we're going to miss the start of Brandon and Amentia wedding," Layla pointed out. Stella's face became hard, and she stepped out onto the bridge.

"That a girl!" Bloom cheered, and the group turned and started to make their way across the bridge.

"I see the chamber up ahead," Layla said when they were about three quarters of the way across. "I'm going for it. You guys wait here. Tell Stella to stop looking down."

Bloom and Sky looked back over their shoulders to see a pale looking Stella tightly holding the rope of the bridge as if it was the link to her life force.

"I'm cool," she assured them in a voice that was very quiet and shaking. "Just taking baby steps."

Layla gave her an encouraging smile before grabbing hold of a rope that was dangling down along side the bridge and swung fearlessly across chasm. As the she neared the cliff face on the other side, she let go of the rope and flipped her body to catch hold of the rock wall.

"Whoa!" Stella gasped as Layla began her climb to reach the ledge above her.

"She's certainly got guts," Sky agreed before he started walking again. "Come on, let's at least get to the other side of this bridge so we don't have to wait over this giant gap."

"That sounds like a good plan," Bloom nodded following after the prince. "Hey Sky? Do you think Brandon's doing okay?"

"If I know Brandon, he'll be fighting tooth and nail to try and find a way out of this marriage that's being forced on him," Sky grinned. "Brandon was always a big supporter in people marrying for love not just because someone says they have to. I guess that's because his parents are so devoted to each other. When Brandon found out about my arranged engagement to Diaspro, he was horrified. He even came up with a couple of hair brained schemes to try and get out of it, but they always seemed to involve running away and joining the Zodiac Fighters (4)."

"Zodiac Fighters?" Bloom repeated.

"They were a bunch of comic book superheroes," Sky explained, and when he heard Bloom snigger he added, "We were thirteen."

"I think it's cute," Bloom grinned mockingly as the two of them made it to the other side of the bridge. Stella trailed behind them, moving at a painstakingly slow pace. "You okay Stell?"

"Yeah, just ducky," Stella answer unenthusiastically.

"I think her power's weakening," Bloom whispered in a worried voice to Sky, but before the prince had a chance to respond a purple lightning bolt hit her, throwing the fairy to one side. "Ah!"

"Bloom!" Sky cried in alarm and a second later another bolt collected him in the back, causing him to fall on his face. Sky struggled to try and sit up, but the bolt of purple electricity had sent painful shock waves ripping through his body, making him feel extremely weak. He could sense their attackers approach them from behind, and when he looked up, Sky's blue eyes widened in horror as he made out three familiar silhouettes.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Bloom exclaimed, also recognizing the trio.

"I thought they were locked away," Sky said as he observed the dreaded Trix Sisters.

The eldest and leader of the Tix, Icy, was in the center of the three as always. Her pale skin was juxtaposed by her dark blue clothes and her ice blue eyes burned with chilling hate as she glared at Bloom, the fairy that had defeated her the previous year. Her hair was an unnatural sliver white and was pulled back into the high pony tail, and she was surrounded by an ice blue halo of light that had a wicked cast to it.

To Icy's right stood the middle child of the three of them and Riven's ex-girlfriend Darcy. Clad all in tight fitting purple attire, Darcy golden brown hair reached right down her back and floated inches above the ground. Her skin was pale and flawless, and seemed to radiate some kind of wicked delight. Darcy was without a doubt a beautiful young lady, and her golden eyes burned with a terrible intelligence. Like Icy, she too seemed to be surrounded by a halo of light, only hers was her signature colour of purple.

The third and final member of the Trix Sisters was the youngest, Stormy, who stood to Icy's left. Dressed in crimson pink, the witch had a pretty face that was lost in her outrageous perm. As the Weather Witch and the master of natural disasters, Stormy had as quick a temper as some of her lighting bolts. Her pretty violet eyes burned with a boarder line insane anger, and her body was outlined by a crimson pink halo.

The Trix may have looked like the same girls that went to Cloud Tower last year, but there was definitely something different about them. They seemed stronger and more confident then they did last year, but the only thing Sky could see that was new was that each of the witches had jewelry hanging off different parts of their bodies. Darcy and Stormy both had theirs on their wrists, while Icy had hers around her neck and all of them glow with the witches signature colour.

Stormy grinned wickedly and conjured up a lightning storm which rattled the cave walls. Stella stumbled the rest of the way across the bridge which was now shaking like crazy and join Bloom and Sky on the rock ledge.

"So, losers," Darcy greeted with a snarl.

"Did you miss us?" Stormy asked mockingly.

"We missed you," Icy lied.

'This doesn't look good,' Sky thought to himself. The Trix were ready to get some revenge since it was Bloom and the Winx Club who had defeated them last year, and by the looks of it the caves did nothing to drain their powers. If anything, it amplified them. Sky turned to address Bloom. "Do you have enough power to fight them?"

"I've always got power to fight these witches," Bloom assured him, glaring at her long time enemies. Ever since Bloom had first arrived at Alfea, the Trix had paid special attention to try and destroy Bloom's life. They had targeted her friends, attacked her family and made her doubt her own power. Bloom wasn't normally a violent person, but all that when out the window when she was up against these three witches.

"You girls are sophomores now aren't you? What a joke," Icy laughed mockingly.

Stella's eyes narrowed in distaste. "So, how'd you like the looney-bin?"

"You know, not so much," Darcy answered her.

Stormy's face twisted into one of total disgust. "They tried to make us nicer."

"Yeah, and you know the funny thing is? It just made us meaner," Icy told them, conjuring up her power. The air instantly chilled, causing Sky's breath to cloud in front of him. Icicles filled the air and then twisted themselves, ready to strike. Grabbing Bloom by the wrist, Sky dragged Bloom to safety just as the icicles launched themselves at them only to be embedded into the rock that the two teens were standing in font of just a few seconds before.

"Ah!" Bloom screamed, alarmed by Icy's awesome display of power. Even when the Trix had the Dragon Fire and the Army of Decay they weren't this powerful.

"Stella!" Sky shouted as Icy prepared another wave of icicles, this time aimed at the sun princess. "Get back!"

But Stella wasn't able to dodge the attack and got hit by icicles, but it wasn't too serious so the blonde was able to rebound from it quickly, though her clothes didn't fair was well. "You ripped my favourite cardies!"

"Oh, we'll rip up more than your shorts, Blondie. We promise you that," Icy hissed before pointing to the ice blue necklace that was wrapped around her neck. "See this? It's called a Gloomix and increases our power dramatically, especially in a place with abundance of negative energy like Shadow Haunt. You guys don't have a chance in hell of beating us now."

"Gloomix?" Sky repeated, that didn't sound good.

"You got it," Darcy grinned wickedly, caressing hers fondly. "You have no idea what kind of a power boost this thing gave us."

"It was gifted to us by the Shadow Phoenix himself," Stormy told them.

"That's right, you're currently looking at Lord Darkar's main witches," Icy informed them. "But enough chat. I miss the way we all used to play together. Darcy, would you mind getting this party started?"

"My pleasure," Darcy smirked evilly. Her Gloomix flashed deep purple, and then she vanished into thin air before their eyes.

"Where'd she go?" Sky asked, looking around and crouching down into a defensive stance. This was not good. The witches now had an insane amount of power while Bloom and Stella's were still slightly drained. Sky still had she sword and shield, but there was only so much that could do against magic.

"Stella! Behind you!" Bloom suddenly exclaimed as a fully powered Darcy appeared behind the blonde fairy. Giving Stella no time to try and counter or even block the attack, the Dark Witch threw a powerful hypnotic beam at her in an attempt to crush her. But at the last second, Bloom jumped in and tackled Stella to the ground, effectively pushing her out of the way of the attack. The two Alfea fairies propped themselves up off the ground, and glared a challenge at the witches. "Let's get 'em."

"Pixies do this every time. It's getting old," Icy sighed as the two girls transformed into their winx form. But as soon as the fairies had finished their transformation, they were instantly on the attack.

"Take this!" Bloom shouted, conjuring up a fire ball and hurling it at Darcy. The witch simply responded by teleporting herself away, laughing callously.

"Psycho clone!" Stormy screamed, spelling the wind to spin and form a tornado which flew directly for Stella. The fairy blocked it, however, with the Scepter of Solaria. But the wind spiral was so powerful that it still knocked Stella to the ground, who cried out in the impact.

"Stella!" Sky shouted.

"Oh no!" Bloom gasped, making a move to help her friend, but Sky stopped her when he saw someone hovering over them.

"Up there!" Sky pointed to Icy who was in the air above them. The Ice Queen used her Gloomix to conjure a giant iceberg which she sent flying at the Keeper of the Dragon Fire. "Bloom!"

Grabbing hold of her again, Sky dragged Bloom though the caves till they were safe behind some massive rock walls. Panting, Bloom smiled graciously at him. "Thanks Sky."

But before he could respond, Darcy reappeared above them and summoned up a painful hex that she used to use on nerds at Cloud Tower while she was there. "Poser hex!"

Bloom gasped as the hex hit her, putting her into painful body lock. Her body went completely ridged in pain and her blue eyes that Sky loved so much screamed in silent agony.

"That does it!" Sky snapped, pulling out his phantom sword. No one – Gloomix or not – hurt his Bloom and got away with it. Plus, Sky had a score to settle with this bitch for the way she had messed with Riven last year. Blinded by rage, Sky took a wild swing at Darcy who easily dodged it, causing Sky to end up embedding his blade in the rock behind her. Tugging at his sword, Sky found it wouldn't budge, but when Darcy tried to throw another attack at him, Sky found another use for his sword. Using sword like a spring board, Sky was able to jump clear over her, but the bulk of her attack hit and ended up warps his blade.

'Shit,' Sky cursed in his head as he landed on a rock. It was gonna take a lot of work to get his sword straight again. But that wasn't the most pressing of his troubles when he saw that the boulder he was standing on and his feet were quickly covering with ice, fixing him to the spot.

"You Red Fountain boys, you're all so _shiver_-ous, aren't you?" Icy almost purred in malicious delight as she hovered over the prince, watching the ice start to travel up his legs.

"Icy!" Sky spat. His legs might be useless now, but he wasn't beat just yet. Pulling out boomerang, he throws it at bridge which snapped as the weapon cut through the rope holding it up. One broken bit swung down on a course to hit Icy, but the Ice Queen froze it in mid air. Clenching her hand into a fist, Icy cause the frozen bridge to shatter and still the ice continued to move up Sky's body until reached his neck.

"Oh man, witches?" a new voice said, and Sky looked up to see Layla in full winx form observing the fight. "I used to wipe the floor with your kind back in Tides."

Wasting no time, Layla flew headlong into the fight and cast an energy ball of her aquatic magic in Icy's direction. The attack proved to be fruitless as Icy caught the ball in her hands before it hit her and calmly squashed it out of existence. "Well, you're not in Tides anymore, sweetheart."

"Who's the new girl?" Darcy asked.

"Who care?" Stormy instantly answered. "Let's kick her booty!"

"Uh-huh," Darcy agreed, moving to a place where she could attack Layla from behind. That underhanded move was enough to knock Layla to the ground and transforms back to her normal form, something the Trix found to be hilarious.

"This was way too easy," Icy chuckled as she viewed the result of their attacks. Layla lay unconscious on the ground as was Stella, while Bloom was still trapped in Darcy's painful body lock and Sky was doing his bit as the ice sculpture. But her pleasure was short lived as a white light suddenly filled the cavern, forcing her and her sisters to shield their eyes. "What is that?"

"I can't see anything," Darcy cringed.

"So bright," Stormy flinched.

Out of the centre of the white light flew a man with massive, snow white wings. His steel blue hair was long and was pulled back into a pony tail that reached pretty much all the way down his back. He was dressed in elegant looking robes and his entire body glowed in a positive, white light. Sky watched as this stranger flew down to land along side Layla and, using powerful magic, regenerated Layla till she was strong enough to sit up. Without a word, the stranger then moved onto Sky, melting the ice and releasing the prince.

'Who is this guy?' Sky thought as he watched the man move over to Bloom to remove Darcy's hex. But his curiosity turned to outrage as Bloom fell into the stranger's arms. 'And who does he think he is, holding my girl like that?'

The man lowered Bloom to her feet and then moved over to take care of Stella. Once she too was healed, the stranger turned his attention to the Trix. Bloom, Stella and Layla all gaped openly at the man, which Sky couldn't help up get a tad jealous about.

"What a hunk!" Stella exclaimed, her eyes glazed in delight.

Not distracted by what the Princess of Solaria said, the man conjured up a ball of light and held it over his head. _"Exspeara caturance stregus defupra!"_

Sky had no idea what that man had said, but as he threw the ball of light at the three witches, it expanded and completely surrounded them. Imprisoned in his ball of light, the man commanded it and the witches away, which cause the four students to cheer.

"That was awesome!" Bloom told him, walking over to the man. "You saved our lives."

"I'm a paladin," the man responded, causing Sky, Stella and Layla's eyes to widen. They all knew what a paladin was, though Bloom clearly didn't. "It's what I do."

In the magical order of the universe, celestial beings ranked the highest as far as powers went and the paladin's were morals that they had gifted with their skills so they could act as knights in their stead since the celestial beings were so few in number. Gifted with long life and un-measurable positive magic, paladin's spent their lives serving other with their extensive knowledge, protecting the weak and fighting injustice in all its forms. The feats of the paladin order were legendary, and all heroes dreamed of capturing the celestial being attention in such a way to perhaps earn such a prestigious honor.

"Are you Rienhlocke?" Sky asked, dropping to one of his knees out of pure respect for such a divine creature. Rienhlocke had been a paladin that had saved the whole of Eraklyon two centuries ago so every child from Sky's realm knew his name. To actually met Rienhlocke would be an honor that Sky couldn't even being to put into words. "The Great Paladin of Ferendor Fjord?"

"No, but I know him. Nice fellow," the paladin answered in an offhanded tone of voice that Sky actually found to be rather insulting. Eraklyon had countless ballads and several monuments to Rienhlocke and this guy simply called him a nice fellow? The man was a legend in Sky's realm for crying out loud! Even though this paladin had saved their lives, Sky got the impression that he was not going to like this guy.

"So who are you?" Bloom asked him.

"All will be revealed in time," the paladin assured her, before bowing deeply and taking flight again. The group watched as he glided up to the roof of the cavern and vanished down one of the upper chambers.

"That guy is the meaning of the word handsome," Stella gashed in a dreamy sounding voice.

"Yeah and brave," Bloom added causing a sharp stab of jealousy to rip through Sky.

"Hey! I'm pretty handsome and brave too you know," he reminded them, but the girls looked far too distracted with the mystery paladin to listen to what he had said. A little insulted, Sky looked out over chasm to see several unidentifiable objects flying directly at them. "Oh no! Monsters! Quick! In here everybody!"

With a gasp, Stella and Bloom followed him into the safety of one of the caves, but Layla completely ignored him and moved towards the edge of the cliff and the monsters instead.

'What is she doing?' Sky's mind screamed. "Layla! Come on!"

"Layla!" Bloom tried when the Princess of Tides paid no attention to the hero's advice. Sky was just about to rush out and drag her to safety when Layla's pleased voice filled the air.

"It's the pixies!" she told them with undisguised delight and as the 'monster' got closer Sky could see that they were in fact pixies just like Athena, only different colours and their own little personalities that was show through their clothing. But the one thing they all had in common was that they all looked thrilled to see Layla.

"Layla!" all of them cried in delight, flying in and crashing into Layla with enough force to knock her to the ground. Layla didn't look annoyed by this in the slightest. In fact she looked quite relieved as the others joined while she received a group hug.

"These are my new friends you guys; Bloom, Stella and Sky," Layla said to the pixies, but before she could get a chance to introduce the pixies to the teenagers, one pixie that was dressed in a pink robe like gown with cherry coloured hair flew over to Stella, her large, blue eyes wide.

"You're so beautiful," the pink pixie told the golden princess in a dreamy tone of voice.

"And you're so adorable," Stella instantly replied in the same distant sounding voice.

"Stella returning a complement?" Sky said, scratching his head with confusion. Normally Stella would have replied with an 'I know' kind of comment, but not with this pixie. "What's that about?"

"Well, you see, a fairy and her destined pixie bond at first sight," Layla explained to him. "They're like soul mates."

"I'm Amore, the Pixie of Love," the pink little pixie introduced.

"And I'm Stella form Solaria," Stella replied.

While this was going on, Bloom and a purple little pixie with large green eyes were both staring at each other with the same kind of rapture that Stella and Amore were having.

"You're amazing. You've got a lot of hidden passages in your heart," the pixie said, flying into Blooms outstretched hand. "I'm Lockette, the Pixie of Portals."

As Stella, Amore, Bloom and Lockette bonded, a pixie dressed entirely in blue with wise, pale blue eyes tuned her attention to Layla. "You shouldn't have been able to break that barrier," she said in a very intelligent sounding voice.

"I know. Something is not right here," Layla agreed, taking a seat on the stone ground to try and work out what was going on. The other teenagers joined her, while the pixies either landed or hovered above them. "First the barrier, then that paladin appears out of no where . . ?"

Stella, who had snapped out of her bonding phase, suddenly remembered a rather pressing matter that she was no going to ignore. "Hey! Let's talk and walk people! This little mission isn't over yet! My beau is being forced down the aisle! We've got to save him!"

Sky, also remembering Brandon's predicament, agreed with Stella and quickly got to his feet. "Stella's right," Sky agreed and both Bloom and Layla nodded. They were not going to abandon Brandon to forced marital bliss. "Everybody, let's hurry up and get to Down Land. Brandon needs us."

* * *

_(1) I've worked as a lift operator of a few seasons at the snow, and I tell you there is nothing that scares me more than little kids on skis. They just point their skis parallel down the mountain and let gravity do its thing. But I tell you this, I got pretty good at kid catching by the end of it_

_(2) I have a few issues with the bark boards. I honestly don't think they'd work and there is no way Layla would be able to land that jump_

_(3) She sounds so proud when she says that. Makes be laugh every time cause she could have killed herself_

_(4) The Zodiac Fighters are something like X–Men. They're guys. They need a comic book reference _

_Well, that's five chapters down, twenty-one more to go. I'm off on holidays for a week, but I'll try and get the sixth chapter up as soon as I get back. See ya!_

_TBC. _


	6. My Boyfriend's Wedding

_Okay, I'm back from my vacation to the Land of the Long, White Cloud so I'm diving right back into it. Sp all rise and tuck in your shirt's for chapter six!_

* * *

**Chapter Six – My Boyfriend's Wedding **

"Excuse me, but may I ask what exactly we are doing?" a very formal looking pixie with lavender hair, blue eyes and dressed in a blue gown that looked like it belonged in a period play asked politely.

"Stella's boyfriend Brandon is currently being held hostage in a place called Down Land where their Queen, Amentia, plans to marry him against his will so she can have the perfect husband. Apparently she's a perfectionist, only she's taken it to an insane new level," Layla explained as the group walked through the tunnels. Stella had stormed off immediately after the group decided it was time to save Brandon, and the others had to almost jog to keep up with the pace she was setting.

"So, who are these other pixies?" Bloom asked, looking at the group that now fluttered along with them.

"Oh, how incredibly rude of us," the formal looking pixie gasped, a horrified look on her tiny face. "My name in Tune and I am the Pixie of Manners. May I also introduce Digit."

"Hello," the blue pixie greeted formally.

"Chatta," Tune continued.

"Hi there!" the blonde pixie who's hair was pulled up into two long pig tails to give her a cheer leader like look almost screamed.

"Zing."

"Hey-ya," a pixie wearing what looked like a bumble bee costume waved.

"And Glim," Tune finished. Glim, a tubby looking orange pixie, made a gurgling noise as a greeting.

"It's nice to meet you all," Bloom smiled warmly, but Stella was quickly losing patients.

"Enough chit chat, people!" she ordered, marching along. "We've got to get to that dreary Down Land and bust up this bogus wedding that pasty cave queen's got planned. I swear, I'm gonna gouge out her big, bug like eyes!"

"Stella, we can't just storm into Amentia's castle," Sky tried to tell her as he lit the tunnel with a torch. "We need a plan."

"You wonna a plan? I tell you what the plan is; I'm goin' in there, smacking her around and takin' my man back!" Stella told him in a tone of voice that clearly indicated that she planned to do exactly that. "Nobody is going to steal my boyfriend!"

"But if we come up with a battle plan we'll have a much better chance at success," Sky tried to warn her, but all he got in response was a feral growl for Stella. "Believe me."

"I read that being in love impairs your ability to think clearly," the pixie Chatta said and Sky got the feeling that with Stella, that was exactly the case.

"Love's about feeling," Amore defended sweetly. "It's not about thinking, Chatta."

"Pick it up, guys!" Stella snapped, storming off down the tunnel.

Sky sighed and knew that he had to try and make Stella see reason. Sure, he wanted to stop this wedding as well, but rushing in there without planning something was not the way to go. "We're hugely outnumbered and you three don't have your powers."

"So what?"

Bloom decided to try a different approach and took a seat on the ground to try to get Stella to stop. Layla and Sky both stopped as well, but Stella just kept right on marching. "Why don't we just sit here for a sec and think about how we'll pull this off?" Bloom tried but Stella completely ignored her. "She's not even listening to me."

"I'll talk to her," Chatta said, flying over to the enraged sun princess. "Hey! Stella!"

But before Chatta had a chance to say anything further, Stella let out another scary growl which caused Chatta to pale. "We're not going to stop and we don't have any time to lose!"

"Okay, somebody just needs to explain logically why we can't rush in there like hot heads," Digit advised and Sky quickly started after Stella.

"Digit's right. Listen Stella, the third rule of tactics states very clearly that emotion is the enemy of victory," Sky told her and when Stella came to a stop he thought he had finally gotten through to her. However, that thought quickly dissolved when he saw that Stella was now actually shaking in rage.

"I'm going in!" Stella finalized turning around and getting right up in Sky's face. "Kay? You can come or you can stay!"

Sky flinched as Stella snatched torch out of his hands and stormed off toward Down Land and her imprisoned boyfriend. 'Wow, Stella can be really scary when she wants to be.'

"Amore, I do not envy you being bonded with her," Digit said, echoing relatively the same thoughts Sky had for Brandon.

Amore, however, didn't seem to mind in the slightest. "Oh, I think she's the best."

"She's certainly committed," Tune agreed.

"That's one word for it," Zing muttered under her breath, but the group followed after Stella none to less.

* * *

Brandon slouched as the two four armed guards that flanked his sides practically dragged him through the halls of Amentia's palace. The groom-to-be would have walked on his own, except he no longer had the strength, so he relied on the guards support as he stumbled between them.

"Please," he croaked wearily. "I'll do anything. I'll serve a thousand years in servitude. I'll eat dirt. I'll sit through hours of Battle History class. Hell, I'll even try to teach Lex advanced philosophy. Just, please, no more grooming. Please."

One of the guards nodded curtly and said, "We have to take you to the Queen and get her approval."

Brandon didn't think he had been through anything as horrific as Queen Amentia's pre-wedding perfection ritual. Every inch of his skin – and that was really _every inch _– of his skin had been scrubbed and measured for Amentia's benefit. His Red Fountain uniform had been taken from him and he had been dressed in what he viewed to be one of the most ridiculous outfits in existence. He even almost wished that a rescue party wouldn't come for him so no one would see him like this. The squire wore a cape about his neck as well as a large necklace. Head band wrapped around his head and he had Down Land sandals on his feet. Amentia had denied him a shirt of any kind so the only thing covering his body was a piece of material that one could probably call a skirt if it didn't go against everything about what Brandon was, though he did find it to be surprisingly free and breezy.

"The eyebrow plucking really wiped him out," one of the guards commented as they approached Queen Amentia's private quarters. The young queen was sitting at her dressing table applying her lipstick to her cold lips. Both the guards came to attention "Your Majesty, we have finished Brandon's pre-wedding perfection ritual."

"Good," Amentia said calmly. "So he's been de-germed?"

"Yes, you Majesty."

"He's pours have been unclogged and his toe nails been cut to the exact same length?"

"Yes," the guard said as they threw Brandon forward. The young hero stumbled slightly, but he managed to keep his feet as his support was taken from him. "But you should know that we measured his arms and that the left one is one millimeter longer, but that's normal. He's almost perfect."

Amentia suddenly went very still. Getting up to her feet, she moved towards the guards, seething with fury. "There is no such thing as almost perfect! Everything in life is either perfect or imperfect and imperfection is utterly and completely unacceptable!" the queen screeched. She completely snapped and slashed at their faces with her lipstick, causing massive, red crosses to be drawn on their helmets. "Is that clear gentlemen?!"

"Yes!" both guards saluted before they made a break for it, leaving the engaged couple alone in Amentia's room.

"I guess I'm not suitable for you," Brandon said, and he couldn't lie and say that he wasn't relieved that he had a small right arm. If it meant getting out of this marriage, Brandon would gladly cut of his arm to the elbow. Amentia, however, seemed unfazed as she closed the door and turned to face him, giggling girlishly "I'm sorry to disappoint you but I'm sure the perfect guy is out there. Huh?"

Brandon looked at the Queen to see that she was not at all put off by the tiny fault. In fact, she looked almost seductive as she glided over to where he stood.

'Oh no.'

"Wait! I'm not perfect!" Brandon tried to tell her, and in a panic he backed right up into her bed. As his legs hit the sides, he lost his balance and fell onto the perfectly soft bed. His worst nightmare became realized as Amentia followed after him and climbed on top of him to straddle his hips. 'Not good! So not good!'

"You're arm can be fixed," she told him. "I'll take care of it right now. A little stretching should do the trick."

"Please, get off me," Brandon begged, not liking this compromising position at all. There was only one girl that Brandon wanted to be in this situation with and Amentia definitely wasn't her.

"Why? Do you like it?" Amentia purred, leaning over to get her face right up close to his. Brandon instantly started to sweat, and not at all in a good way. "But of course you do."

"Amentia, please."

Amentia looked oddly pleased at Brandon's panic, but she climbed off him with a sly smile. "However, no matter how strong our urges may be, we cannot give into desire," she said, before looking over her shoulder and giving Brandon a smoldering look. "At least, not until our wedding night."

Brandon suddenly felt like he had just had a bucket of ice cold water dumped over him. Wedding night? That horrific thought hadn't even entered his mind up until that point, but it did make sense. Wedding night and honeymoons traditionally followed a wedding and the happy couple was expected to finalize their marriage on that night. Brandon had fooled around with girls in the past, but he had never 'gone all the way' with one before, and the thought of having this pale, controlling cave queen as his first made Brandon start to hyperventilate.

'I've got to get out of here.'

Breaking into a blind panic, Brandon tried to make a bolt for it, but as he shot past Amentia, the Queen of Down Land took firm hold of his right hand and jerked back on it with such force that it sent Brandon tumbling to the ground. Amentia may look like a weak, spoiled young woman, but she had enough strength to almost rip Brandon's arm out of its socket.

"There. One millimeter longer," she commented dryly and Brandon cupped his aching shoulder. "Now you're perfect, my husband-to-be."

* * *

"Where I'm from, a person can't get married without parental permission if their under the age of eighteen (1)," Bloom said as the group walked through the tunnel. "Maybe Brandon can get out of it that way."

"Yeah, but Amentia's the Queen of the realm he's getting married in, so I'm sure she could overrule a law like that," Sky pointed out.

"Isn't eighteen a little young for people to be allowed to get married?" Layla asked.

"Not when you consider that people much younger can become parents."

"I'm not going to get married till I'm thirty," Bloom informed the group.

"That's old," Stella commented.

"There's a realm in the eastern magical dimension where to concept of marriage doesn't even exist," Sky told the others. Of course, in that particular realm, only one out of every eight babies born was male so in order of the population to be maintained, a man couldn't be restricted to one sexual partner. Every heterosexual teenage boy dreamed at one time or another to visit such a promiscuous realm, but Sky didn't think the girls needed to hear about that right now.

"I don't see why people even need marriage. I'm not getting married," Layla said before looking at Sky. "How 'bout you?"

"Oh, I don't know," Sky skillfully side stepped. He had already been engaged once and he didn't really feel like answering that question while the girl who caused him to break off that engagement was walking three feet away from him.

"I always though royalty had to get married. You know, kind of like a requirement?" Bloom said.

"I'm going to get married when I'm twenty-five and Vira Won is going to design my wedding dress," Stella said as if all this had already been arranged. "The whole kingdom of Solaria will be invited. Bloom and Layla, you will be two of my bridesmaids."

"Oh, that's great," Layla said with a vast lack of enthusiasm. But the conversation about weddings stopped when the tunnel suddenly came to an end and opened out into a massive cavern that housed the entire civilization of Down Land.

"Hey, this is it!" Stella said, looking out over the whitish-green city. "Bleak, isn't it?"

"I've seen nicer realms," Bloom said delicately.

"It's in desperate need of some colour," Stella noted. "If I could just . . . oh well. It's not my kingdom."

"Ah!" Lockette suddenly gasped. "Look!"

Sky followed Lockette's trembling finger and saw what had the little pixie so spooked. "Quiet, one of their guards is coming."

Ducking behind one of the many rocks Down Land had on offer, the teenagers and the pixies all hid as the giant guard passed by them. And if all the guards were as massive as that guy, Sky knew that they were going to have a bit of trouble sneaking into Amentia's castle to try and save Brandon from a fate worse then death.

"Everybody, keep the noise down," Bloom ordered before stepping out from behind the rock. "Alright, c'mon. Follow me."

Keeping low, the teenagers crept out from behind the rock to move to another large rock. If they could just keep hidden like this, they might have a chance.

"C'mon," Layla said to the pixies. The tiny little creatures flew out from behind the rock, but they didn't make the same effort to stay low as the others did. "Stay down!"

Sky almost laughed out loud as the pixies literally dropped in mid air to fly closer to the ground. Moving from rock to rock, the group managed to enter the city without being spotted, but the city of Down Land proved to be a much harder terrain to conceal themselves than the area surround it was. Most of the streets were empty as the trog prepared to attend their queens wedding, but countless guards and sentries still patrolled the streets.

"We're going to have to create a distraction," Sky said as they watched one guard that was currently blocking their path.

Layla looked around for something that they could use, and she ended up selecting a rock. Handing it to Sky she said, "Here use this."

Understanding her plan instantly, Sky accepted the rock and hurled it in the direction of the guard. He wasn't aiming to hit the giant trog, but to have the rock land not far from him. The sound of the rock hitting the stone ground of the city alerted the guard who quickly went off into that direction to investigate. Without wasting any time, the group bolted out from their hiding place to move deeper into the city, but as she ran out into the open, Stella tripped over her own feet and fell hard onto the ground. "Oh!"

"Stella!" Bloom gasped, skidding to a stop. "Hey."

The guard that had just left the area must have heard them, because he turned around and started making his way back to the street he was just patrolling. Bloom helped Stella to her feet since it looked like the sun princess was once again suffering from an energy drain.

"Everyone, in here!" Sky said as loudly as he dared, opening the door to one of the trogs houses. No one was home, so it could act as a hiding pace for them for a few minutes. Layla quickly hurried inside, but the pixie's and the other two fairies were still outside and the guard was getting closer. "Quickly now! Go! Hurry!"

The pixies all flew in and then took hiding under the trog cookware that was sitting on one of the shelves. Stella and Bloom then followed with Stella leaning heavily on Blooms shoulder. The blonde had gone very pale again and she looked like she was fighting the urge to be sick.

"Everybody be quiet," Layla whispered, trying to hear if the guard had followed them. "Maybe he'll go by."

"Be quiet," Sky stressed and everyone fell silent. Stella swayed slightly where she stood, and when her balance wavered she placed her hand on the table to help support her. Unfortunately, her hand hit a butter knife that had been left on the table and it was knocked to the ground. Everyone flinched at the sound it made.

"Huh?" the guard grunted, not sure if he had heard anything or not.

Sky pulled out his phantom blade just to be on the safe side, but he didn't extending it right away. He wasn't even certain that the trog had heard the noise, so the prince wasn't going to jump the gun and blow their cover.

"Huh? Uh–uh," Layla whispered to Sky when she saw the sword and she proved right when the guard passed by without search for the source of the sound. Everyone collectively let out a sigh of relief.

"How do you feel?" Bloom asked Stella as soon as she figured it was safe to talk.

"A little dizzy but I think I'm going to be alright," Stella assured her friend. Sky knew that Stella probably shouldn't be down here away from the sun, but he also knew that he had no chance in hell to talk her out of finding Brandon. But at the same time, Sky was well aware of the fact that if anything happened to Stella, Brandon would probably kill him.

'Damned if I do and dammed if I don't,' Sky thought glumly to himself. Chatta was right; being in love really did impair someone's ability to think clearly and as a result it gave everyone around that person a painful headache. But all thoughts on that matter were driven from Sky's mind as something hit the door from the outside, giving off a loud banging sound. Layla let out a gasped and Sky responded by extending his sword to full length. They were going to find Brandon and get the hell out of this place, even if it meant cutting their way out of here

The door flew open and Sky got ready for a fight, but he froze when he saw that the creature on the other side of the door wasn't a guard at all. Instead, it was a long tailed cat that came saluting into the place as if it owned it.

"Oh, hey kitty," Bloom greeted with an obvious note of relief in her voice. Sky felt his own body relax as he withdrew his sword. The cat observed each of them regally with its golden eyes, then turned up its nose at them and continued on its way.

"That cat's got an attitude problem," Sky said. He was more of a dog person than a cat person anyway (2).

"Hundreds of years ago, cats were worshiped as gods by this civilization on Earth," Bloom explained. "My dad always says that they've never forgotten that."

"Hey, it's clear," Layla told them, checking the street outside. "Let's go."

The group headed off again, and the pixie's followed behind them with the cookware that they had hidden under in the house still over them. It meant that no one to see them, but it also meant that they couldn't see where they were going so they soon got separated from the teenagers.

"Where are the pixies?" Layla asked when she realized that they were missing.

"They were right behind us," Bloom said, looking back the way they had just come.

The location of the missing pixies was answered for them when they all heard a trog woman say in a loud voice, "Isn't that your cookware, Martha?"

"Yes!" the trog called Martha exclaimed. "Thieves! Someone stop them! Thieves!"

"You think that's the pixies?" Sky asked.

"It's gotta be," Layla replied, glancing in the direction that Martha's voice had came from. A relived smiled spread across her face and she waved at someone. "There they are."

The pixies, their disguises gone, flew over to them as fast as their little wings could take them. Glim, who was still wearing a can over her, however, couldn't see where she was going and flew straight into a wall. The canned pixie dropped to the ground where the pixie remained trapped, kicking her tiny legs in an attempt to get free.

"She's stuck," Sky couldn't help but chuckle. Crouching down, he picked up the can with the pixie still inside. "Let me help. Here."

After shaking the can a few times, Glim popped out and smiled graciously up at her rescuer. Sky smiled back, but that quickly vanished as a large shadow feel over him from behind. Before Sky had a chance to react, the massive trog guard knocked him over the head, smacking him senseless. (3)

* * *

When Sky slowly started coming around, Bloom had just taken care of the guard that had attack him, but two more came running up to replace him.

"We have intruders," one of the guards announced, moving in to seize said intruders. Layla and Stella suddenly joined them, but they were both running away from another guard.

"This is where a plan would have been good," Layla said as the giant trogs moved in on them.

"Let's improvise," Sky suggested, but when he couldn't think of anything that would immediately get them out of this mess, he fell to his back up plan; run.

"So Sky, what did you have in mind?" Stella panted as they ran.

"Not sure," Sky told her offhandedly.

"We're faster than them," Bloom pointed out as the distance between them and the heavy guards increased. "I say we just keep running."

"Okay," Sky agreed. "Straight ahead to Amentia's castle."

With their plan set, the four teenagers knuckled down and started putting all their strength into their pumping legs, and the gap between them and their pursuers kept growing. But then, there was a sharp whistle from behind, followed by one of the trogs yelling, "Guard Worm!"

"What's a guard worm?" Sky wondered out loud.

"Don't know, but how bad could it be?" Layla replied just as the ground started to shake. The cave wall in front of them smashed inwards to reviled a massive, cream coloured worm. The teenagers froze as they observed the massive monster and suddenly all chances of escaping that thing seemed very small. "Very bad," Layla answered her own question.

"Yup," Sky agreed as he stared in awe that the worm. That thing was freakin' huge! And it had completely cut off their escape rout. The trog guards came up behind them and this time there was no side stepping them.

"You're coming with us," one of the guards told them gruffly.

"You're gonna insist on that, now aren't you?" Stella asked as the guards moved in the seize them.

* * *

Preparations for Amentia's wedding had moved forward at an alarming pace and in less that twenty-four hours, the front courtyard had been set up to hold a grand, elegant wedding. It was all perfect, just as Amentia would have wanted it, but for Brandon it looked as inviting as an execution stage. Feeling like a man on death row, Brandon stood at the window of his private quarters that Amentia had arranged for him, staring down at the courtyard. The only other living creature in the room – Brandon didn't count the two guards post at his door to make sure he didn't try to make a break for it as being in the room with him since there were on the other side of the doors anyway – was a strange little parrot that Brandon called Birdy. Birdy had a rather astounding level of awareness and a vast vocabulary for a bird, however, he was not using either of these things to make Brandon feel any better.

"Oh man, are you in for it," Birdy squawked from his perch. "It's going to be bad. You're in Down Land. Husbands are only second in the pecking order to me. I feel for you man. I feel for ya."

Brandon sighed and walked away from the window. He couldn't look down there any more. Moving over towards Birdy's perch, Brandon looked at his little feathered friend. "Thanks buddy. I never thought that things would end up like this for me."

"Life is twisted," Birdy replied.

"Yup, one day you're going on a routine mission. You're just there to support your girlfriend and the next day you're engaged."

"Your life's over."

Even though Birdy was probably the closest thing Brandon had to a friend in this place, the little parrot wasn't being too helpful. "That's it! I'm getting out of this realm! There's got to be a way out of here!"

"There isn't," Birdy told him. "I've tried."

Trying to rack his brain for some kind of an idea, Brandon jumped when the sound of the door opening and one of the guards entered the room. "They are ready for you to make your entrance," the trog told the groom.

"What did I do to deserve this?" Brandon asked the heavens, but he got no answer.

"The bride mother will walk you down the aisle. Here comes Her Majesty," the guard announced as the ground started to shake as if a stamped was making its way down the hall way.

"Hey! Heads up! Don't let her step on your toe!" Birdy warned as Amentia's mother entered the room.

Brandon's father had once told his oldest son never to be disrespectful to royalty in their presence, no matter what you think of them or their actions. But Brandon couldn't help but gawk at the Queen Mum as she made her entrance. The lady was massively obese and looked as though she may have been related to the ogre Knut. How could a girl as thin and as oddly beautiful as Amentia be the offspring of someone like that?

"I'm so delight to finally meet the man that's going to tend to my daughters every need," Amentia's mother greeted, playfully tapping him on the back with one of her flabby hands, but the blow was strong enough to knock Brandon off his feet. "Look at you. You could use a little meat on your bones."

"This is going to be bad," Brandon predicted.

"Told ya," Birdy squawked as Brandon slowly got to his feet. That was going to bruise, he could feel it.

"I'll put you on my secret weight gain diet but we'll control your weight so it's always is an even number. That's crucial. Amentia can't stand odd numbers," Amentia's mother told him before dragging Brandon off to face his doom. "Ah, welcome to the family. Chop chop! The sooner you're married the sooner you can start serving Amentia."

"Oh boy," Brandon groaned.

"Hope you can clean or you're in for it."

"Welcome to Queen Amentia's wedding!" Brandon heard someone announce over the loudspeaker outside. Brandon had seen all the guests arrive from his private quarters, so now all that they were waiting for was the happy couple to make their entrance.

"You'd better make my daughter happy," the Queen Mum said as they walked through the corridors of Amentia's castle.

"Oh, I'm sure I will," Brandon said with a vast lack of enthusiasm.

"Because you know if you don't, we'll eat you for dinner, right?" the trog laughed, making Brandon's blood freeze.

"For real?"

"Oh, absolutely."

Brandon stared at the trog in pure horror. What the hell was wrong with these people? And what the hell did he do that was so bad that deserved to be thrown into this freak show? This entire realm was completely wacked!

"Please rise and tuck in your shirts!" (4) Brandon heard the announcer order from outside. "Presenting the incredibly immaculate, positively pristine and perfectly perfect; Queen Amentia!"

Trumpets sounded as Amentia walked down the aisle to the altar, escorted by her father. Inside, her mother led Brandon down the stair case that would take them to the courtyard door.

"All I ever wanted to be was a simple squire," Brandon lamented sadly to himself, as memories from his childhood flashed before his eyes. Meeting Sky and becoming his squire and best friend. Heading off to Red Fountain with his prince in the hopes of becoming a hero. Meeting Timmy and Riven and the havoc they could cause when they put their minds to it. And of course falling head over heels in love with Stella. They all seemed such a happy, distant memory now.

"And now please welcome the groom!" the announcer said as the doors opened and Brandon stepped out into the courtyard. "The luckiest man alive!"

But Brandon didn't feel very lucky as he made his way to the altar. His head remained down for the entire walk and when Amentia's mother left him in front of the priest next to his bride to be, Brandon felt like he was going to be physically ill.

'This can't be happening,' Brandon thought to himself as he looked up at Amentia. 'This is all just some horrible, horrible dream.'

Sensing his eyes on her, Amentia looked at her groom and smiled sweetly. "Hey," she greeted fondly, before blowing him a kiss.

'I can't take this,' Brandon thought before everything went black.

* * *

_Slap!_

"Hey!" someone called as Brandon's brown eyes snapped open. One of Amentia's four armed guards was standing over him and the left side of his face was stinging for some reason. "Wake up."

"Huh?" Brandon grunted, looking around. He was lying on the ground for some reason – not the best idea considering the fact that he was wearing a skirt – and everyone was looking at him.

"Don't hit him too hard," Amentia ordered, observing her fingernails. "My groom cannot have a red mark on the side of his face. Now stand him up and let's get this thing started."

Once the groom was forced back on his feet again the priest began his service. "Down Landers, we are gathered here today to celebrate our Queen. Brandon, you may now say the vow that Queen Amentia requested."

"I promise perfection, cleanliness and order always," Brandon recited as he looked around at all the guards. The chances of him escaping or being rescued were getting smaller by the second.

"Marriage is a union where the man worships the woman," the priest continued. "Where he commits to serve her. He commits to love her, comfort her, cook for her and bestow upon her his hearts deepest devotion. If anyone objects, speak now or forever hold your peace."

"I object!" Brandon instantly spoke.

"Not you. You're not even supposed to talk," the priest told him firmly. "The groom forgets that men should be seen and not heard."

"He's so cute," Amentia gushed.

"Moving on. The groom will pledge his eternal love for the bride. Please bring to the altar the devotion bouquet and the ring," the priest ordered. The seven purple girls entered with rings and flowers and Brandon started to sweat in a state of panic.

'Okay, running out of time!' Brandon screamed in his mind. 'Sky! Now would be a good time to show up man!'

For once the heavens seemed to be listening to his prayers because on one of the bridge pathways that were above the courtyard appeared Sky, Bloom, Layla and Brandon's beloved Stella.

"Guys! Hey guys!!" Brandon called, an insane amount of hope building up inside of him. He could picture it now. The three girls would transform and come flying down at the unsuspecting wedding guest. Balls of fire, sunlight and water molecules would rain down on the trogs and anyone who didn't fall under the fairies attack would have to face the skilled blade of the Prince of Eraklyon. Then Stella would flew in and carry Brandon off into the distance – very fitting since he was still wearing a skirt – and they'd all go home and have one of Saladin's milkshakes. But his face fell and his dreams were dashed to ribbons when he saw that along with his friends, two guards were also on the bridge and by the looks of things they had the teenagers in their custody. "Oh. This stinks."

The trogs held their prisoners hands behind their back and lift them slightly off the ground, a position that was making Sky shoulders burn in agony. One guard held Bloom and Stella, while the other had Sky and Layla. Sky struggled against the awesome grip of the Down Land guard, but no matter what he did he just couldn't seem to get free. "Let go!" the prince ordered, but the giant trog paid no attention to his demands.

Stella somehow managed to slip free from the grip of the guard that was holding her and ran to the side of the bridge. Her honey eyes were wide with horror as she viewed the service below. "Brandon!"

"Stella!" her boyfriend shouted back. (5)

"What is going on?" Amentia's father demanded to know.

The priest peered at the four teenagers on the bridge. "Are they Up Worlders?"

Brandon could only stare at his friends longingly. Over the last twenty-four hours he had wished for nothing more than to see them again, but now it looked like they had arrive too late, and Brandon didn't want them to see him go through with this wedding. It would break Stella's heart. "Oh Stella."

"Don't do it buddy! Don't let you make them do it!" Sky yelled, and Brandon suddenly had an overwhelming desire to punch his best friend in the mouth.

"Take those intruders to the snake pit!" the king of Down Land ordered.

"No!" Brandon shouted. They might not be able to save him from this fate worse than death, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let anything happen to them. "They're my guests."

"Generally the groom's not allowed to have guest," Amentia's mother told him. "But we can put them in the back row as long as they remain quiet."

"And make sure you don't let them eat any of the horsdourves," Amentia's father added.

The guard had seized Stella again, but the blonde princess would not be denied. Breaking free, Stella ran to the side of the bridge to once again try to stop this wedding. "No! Don't do it babe!"

Brandon wanted exactly the same thing she wanted, but he couldn't justify saving himself if it meant putting Stella in danger. Amentia had already threatened to kill her if he refused, and with one word from the queen, the guard would cut Stella's throat with the knife he already had placed there.

"These rings are tokens of your love. Symbols of your unity," the priest continued. "With these rings we will seal the wedding."

"Brandon," Stella sobbed, tears running down her cheeks. "I . . . I love you Snookums."

Any other day, Brandon would be jumping for joy at those words, but right now all he could do was hang his head. He had found the girl of his dreams, but he was being forced to be with another. He suddenly knew how Sky must have felt all last year, but at least Sky was able to get out of his arranged marriage. By the looks of it, Brandon wouldn't be getting his fairy tale ending. "I love you Stella. I'm sorry."

"Do you, Queen Amentia, accept this man as you husband?" the priest asked.

"Yes, I do," Amentia replied as she received the devotion bouquet off her maids.

"No!" Stella wailed. "It can't be!"

Queen Amentia smiled coyly at Brandon, before lifting the flowers to her nose and breathed their scent in deeply. "These flowers . . ." she said in a slightly dazed voice. "They smell so good."

"Hey guys!" Layla suddenly gasped. "That's one of Amore's soul mate blossoms! Look!"

"Soul mate blossoms?" Sky repeated.

"Just watched."

"Oh my," Amentia suddenly said, slipping into a trance like state. Her amber eyes had gone very wide, and her trembling hands lost their grip on the flowers so they fell to the floor. "This is all wrong. Brandon's not the one who's supposed to be next to me at my wedding."

'Oh gods, please tell me this is for real,' Brandon's mind screamed, not daring to trust what Amentia was saying in case it wasn't true. But from the look in Amentia's eyes, this wasn't an act. She was really waking up and realizing that this wasn't right.

"I've never felt like this before. I have to find my true love. Where is my soul mate?" Amentia asked pleadingly, looking around to see if she could find him. But she suddenly faced Brandon and said, "Don't be upset Brandon. I'm sure the blonde will take you back."

In all his life, nothing compared to the fantastic feeling that swelled up inside Brandon as Amentia said that to him. Even being accepted into Red Fountain or realizing that Stella didn't care that he was a squire paled to this moment. Brandon couldn't even begin to put his delight into words, so he simply stared up adoringly at Stella, both of them with an expression of pure delight and relief on their faces.

Amentia was still in search of her soul mate. "I must find him. Where is my love?"

"He's there!" someone shouted, and the entire wedding congregation all looked up to see none other than Sponsus moving towards where the Queen stood by jumping over the back of the chairs.

"Here I am!" he cried. "Here I am, my Queen."

"My soul mate!" Amentia squealed, running towards him as well. Unfortunately, the seven purple dancers were standing between the couple, but Amentia would not be stopped. Plowing into the group, Amentia sent the girls flying into the air as if they were shot out of a cannon, but no one paid any attention to them. All eyes were fixed on their Queen and the sentry that was apparently her soul mate. "I love you!"

"I love you too!"

"Sponsus!"

"Amentia!" Sponsus cried as she crash tackled him into a hug. For a second everyone stared at them, too stunned to even blink, but then as one the crowd cheered, delighted that their Queen had finally found happiness. And Brandon was cheering right along side them.

"Hey Brandon," a voice said softly, and Brandon looked up to see a little pink pixie hovering over his shoulder. And for some reason, the pixie look very pleased with herself. "There's true love waiting for you too."

"You bet there is," Brandon grinned widely, turning his brown eyes upwards and staring up at his beloved girlfriend adoringly. "Stella!"

"Brandon!" Stella cried back. In such a short amount a time that you would have been sure that she had teleported herself down, Stella was running towards Brandon's outstretched arms before launching herself into his embrace. Brandon couldn't remember Stella's skin feeling so smooth, or her hair being so soft, or her ever smelling so damn good, so he burnt it all into his memory. The way her body fit so perfectly against his, the way her fingernails dug gently into his bare back as if to try and prevent losing him again and the way her lips tasted underneath his. Brandon was going to make sure he was never going to forget just how they all felt for as long as he lived.

"Oh Stella," Brandon gasped, planting kisses over every piece of exposed flesh his mouth could find. "Cup cake. Sugar plum. Honey bear. Angel pie. Stella. My Stella, I love you."

"I love you too, Snookums," Stella told him, kissing him soundly on the mouth. She didn't care that virtually the entire population of Down Land was watching them. She was back in her boyfriends unmarried arms and that's all that mattered to her. Pulling back from the kiss, Stella wrapped her slender arms around Brandon's neck and buried her cheek into his chest. "And I'm never losing you again."

"That's fine with me, babe," Brandon said, snaking his arms around her waist and holding her as close as was humanly possible. "That's fine with me."

"So, am I marrying someone today or not?" the priest asked.

"Don't look at us," Stella told him as she continued to hug Brandon. "There's no way I'm getting married in a cave."

"Of course we'll be having a wedding today," Amentia told everyone firmly. "Only now, instead of marrying some Up Worlder, I'll be marrying the most perfect man in Down Land."

"Some Up Worlder?" Brandon repeated in a slightly injured tone. "She said I was perfect before."

"Let it go," Stella advised with a hint of steel in her voice.

"Oh I am, trust me. It's just . . . some Up Worlder?"

"Brandon," Stella warned.

"Sorry."

"But Your Majesty, Sponsus hasn't been through the official pre-wedding perfection ritual," one of the four armed guards pointed out.

"He's my soul mate which makes him completely perfect so there is no need for a pre-wedding perfection ritual," Amentia informed everyone. "And anyone who objects can be thrown in the snake pit."

"Then lets get you two wed right away," Layla voiced for everyone, though Brandon did feel rather annoyed that he had to go through all that torture while Sponsus didn't. But he kept his mouth shut none the less.

"Brandon, take your Up Worlder friends and sit in the back row," Amentia ordered. "I'll give you the honour of attending the ceremony but I can't have any outsiders ruining my perfect wedding."

"Yes Your Majesty," the five teenagers said in unison, moving off to do as they were told. Stella still remained in Brandon's arms, even as they walk, and she was absolutely glowing with pleasure.

"Bet you're relieved that that's now over with," Sky said, slapping his friend on the back. "The mission was a success and as soon as Amentia and Sponsus are happily married we'll head off home."

"Can't wait," Brandon said with undisguised relief. "But first I really need to do this."

Sky was shocked when Brandon hit him sharply over the back of the head. "Ow! What was that for?"

"'Don't do it buddy. Don't let you make them do it'," Brandon mocked what his prince had said a few minutes earlier. "Did you think I was down there for a lark or something? Of course not. I didn't just think 'Sure, I'll get married today just to see what it would be like'. 'Don't let you make them do it'. Is that the best advice you could have given me?"

"Hey, you better start being nice to me or I'll tell everyone that you wore a skirt," Sky threatened.

"You do and the mullet pictures come out." (6)

"You wouldn't dare."

"Try me."

"If you don't mind, Up Worlders, we're about to start the service," the priest glared at them.

"Sorry," the two boys said in unison.

"Down Landers, we are gathered here today to celebrate our Queen. Sponsus, you may now say the vow that Queen Amentia requested . . ."

* * *

"I radioed Timmy," Sky told his friend as he walked over to where they stood at Amentia and Sponsus' reception. The wedding was over and once Brandon had been given a chance to change back into his Red Fountain uniform the group had made plans to head home. "He and Riven should be at the entrance they dropped us off at to pick us up soon."

"Thank goodness," Stella sighed, leaning against Brandon with his arm still around his waist. "I am so looking forward to having a shower. I know I got a bit of a wash when I feel into that river but it's just not the same."

"Well, I'm not cleaning myself for a week," Brandon told everyone. He had gotten his fill of grooming with Amentia's pre-wedding perfection ritual so he was looking forward to getting filthy and stinky again.

"Ew, yes you are," Stella objected. "In fact I'm going to make it my mission to buy you some good body wash and make sure that you use it."

"Does that mean we'll be having a shower together?" Brandon grinned wolfishly and Stella instantly elbowed him in the ribs, though a slight smile did tug at the corner of her lips. "What? It'll help save water."

"Brandon," a soft voice called, and Brandon turned to see Sponsus standing behind him with a large crate in his skinny little arms. "This is for you."

"What is it?" Brandon asked, releasing Stella for the first time since Amentia had called off their wedding so he could accept the gift.

"It's a special type of Down Land courage brew to try and apologize for ruining your wedding," Sponsus said, handing the crate over. "This is from the royal potion makers. I'm sorry I took your bride. Take that brew whenever you need courage."

"Thanks Sponsus, but there's really no need for it," Brandon confessed. "I'm just glad everyone ended up happy, that's all."

"Yes, very happy," Sponsus said in a distant voice, staring dreamily at his new wife before turning his big blue eyes back to Brandon. "But I really can't thank you enough for everything. If you Up Worlders had never come to Down Land, then Amentia might not have realized that she needed in her husband was a soul mate, not a pretty face. Please tell me if there is anything else I can do for you."

Brandon was about to decline, when a thought suddenly entered his head. "Actually, there is one thing . . ."

* * *

"What the hell is that?" Riven asked as soon as Brandon set foot onto the squad ship.

"It's my new friend," Brandon grinned, putting the courage brew on the ground. "Riv, Timmy, say hello to our new buddy, Birdy."

"Birdy got out of Down Land! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!" Birdy squawked, bouncing up and down on Brandon's shoulder in what looked like a funny little jig. "Birdy got out of Down Land! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!"

"Do you think Codatorta will let you keep him?" Timmy asked, pushing up his glasses as he watched the dancing bird.

"Maybe, I dunno?" Brandon shrugged. "I just had to get this poor guy of Down Land."

"Birdy got out of Down Land! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!"

"Can it get any more annoying?" Riven asked, rubbing his forehead to try to prevent a headache coming on. He had a feeling that Layla was going to be just as difficult as before and being in a small room with Stella always seemed to result in him developing a pounding headache. And this bird was not helping lower those chances one bit.

"You shouldn't stick your fingers into power sockets!" Bridy squawked, making Riven look up sharply.

"What did he say?"

"Nothing, nothing," Brandon assured him, slipping into one of the chairs. Stella quickly snuggled in next to him and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"Radio Alfea and tell Ms. Faragonda we're coming home," Bloom said as Timmy took off.

"Sure thing," Timmy said, and Birdy flew over to land on the pilots shoulder to watch what he was doing. "So fill us in guys. What happened while you were down there?"

It took most of the trip for everyone to retell everything that had happened to them since they had been dropped of. All the pixies were introduced to everyone and Timmy told them what had been happening back home while they were gone, which was pretty much nothing so it look less than a minute. The news that the Trix were free and set up with Gloomix's seemed to trouble everyone, as did the strange appearance of the paladin and his cryptic message. But it was the Down Landers and Brandon's would-be wedding that the two boys were most interested in hearing about.

"So let me get this straight; you went on a mission and ended up with a wedding proposal?" Riven asked, to which Brandon nodded. "Only someone as stupid as you could pull that off."

"That's not very nice," the pixies Tune said disapprovingly to the burgundy youth.

"I wasn't trying to be."

"Well, I think your lack of manners or empathy is ghastly."

"Oh, back off bug."

"Hey! Don't you talk to her like that!" Layla snarled, death glaring daggers at Riven.

"If you don't like it then you're more then welcome to start walking," Riven told her sharply, poison dripping from his words. The inevitable glaring match commenced, with Layla and Tune ganging up on Riven.

"Everyone stop it!" Stella ordered sharply. "I'm in too good a mood to have it ruined by your bickering!"

Riven and Layla exchanged one more heated look before stalking off to their own corners of the ship. The two of them were willing listen to the blonde princess this time since Sky had told Riven how scary Stella had been earlier that day and Layla had seen it first hand. Brandon and Stella quickly slipped back into their blissful state and it wasn't long before it started spreading to the others. Sky and Bloom kept exchanging warm glances while Birdy nibbled Timmy's cheek. Layla and Riven avoided eyes contact at all costs, and the pixies were completely enthralled with Stella and Brandon.

"What a lovely day," Amore gushed dreamily.

"Yeah," Lockette agreed.

"I'm going to write you a new cheer," Chatta told the happy couple.

"Hey, Brandon, what's in these bottles?" Riven asked, crouching down to observe the cargo. There were half a dozen bottles in total, and they were filled with a liquid that looked to be alcoholic to Riven.

"It's Down Land courage brew," Brandon explained. "It was an apology gift from Sponsus. Apparently he thought I would have been upset that he stole Amentia off me."

"Did he keep any for himself?" Riven asked. "It seems like if he's going to survive that marriage he's going to need courage brew everyday."

"But they're in love," Amore told him.

"Don't kid yourself with that crap."

Layla was instantly on the offensive. "Back off!"

"Or what?"

"Guys! Stop it!" Sky demanded. "Honestly, you two are acting like children. If you keep this up I'm going to put the two of you in a time out."

"Even if our friends are dysfunctional, I'm glad to be back with them," Brandon confessed to Stella as both Layla and Riven swore at Sky before ripping into each other.

"And I'm happy to be back with you," Stella said to him, kissing him gently on the lips. "I love you."

"And I love you," Brandon smiled softly, wrapping his arms tightly around her. He didn't know where this relationship was going, but right now he never wanted to let go of her again.

* * *

_(1) Eighteen is the legal age to get married without parental consent in Australia, and now it's the legal age to get married without parental consent in Gardenia as well _

_(2) In case anyone was wondering, I'm more a cat person than a dog person. I do adore dogs (which I'd have to be since I work for the RSPCA) but they're something about cats that I just love_

_(3) Another convenient black out_

_(4) "Please rise and tuck in your shirts!" That is seriously my favourite quote out of all the episodes in all the season of the Win Club, I kid you not. It makes me laugh every time. At one of my old jobs I was watching the episodes instead of working (naturally), and I nearly made myself sick just trying not to laugh out loud at that line. I'm lucky I didn't crack a rib or something. It's just so funny _

_(5) It's very much A Streetcar Named Desire moment there _

_(6) See Brothers at Arms, Chapter twenty-One 'The Frozen Palace'_

_And by the way, cheers to everyone who viewed. That was a nice little present to come home to. Check ya later!_

_TBC._


	7. The Dark Tower

_Today is a glorious day people!_

"_But why, tears-in-rain?" I hear you ask. "Why is today anymore glorious than the others?"_

_Because victory is mine! As of 8:52 pm Australian EST last night, I finished what is essentially the bulk of this story. All that remains now is a little bit of editing (which not too good at but that's not going to spoil my mood right now) and a few last minute tweeking and I'm done. It's taken me over a year to get to this stage, but the beast has been conquered! Victory is mine, people! Victory is mine! Bring me the finest bagels in all the land! Victory is mine! _**  
**

_And how does this affect you? Simple really, it means you will be getting your updates sooner and you won't have to wait for weeks on end for me to get my ass into gear and give you what you want. So everybody wins!_

_It's a glorious, glorious day!_

* * *

**Chapter Seven 'The Dark Tower' **

It was dark by the time Timmy pulled into Aflea, but the rest of the Winx Club were still outside waiting for them to arrive back home. The three other girls all bolted out of Alfea as Timmy brought the ship in for a landing and as soon as he opened the doors Bloom, Stella and Layla all shot out.

"Bloom!" Musa shouted as she ran. Her pig tails bounced with each step and her navy eyes were sparking with happiness and relief. "What up, girl!?"

"We did it!" Bloom answered, not breaking her stride in the slightest.

"Hey guys!" Stella greeted as well, matching Bloom pace exactly. There were times in the Under Realm that they weren't sure that they'd see their friends again, so everyone was greatly relieved that everyone was home safe.

"You guys rock!" Musa cheered.

"You guys made it! We were so worried!" Tecna confessed to them, coming to a stop near her friends while Flora embraced Bloom. Musa and Stella also hugged, while Layla was receiving her welcoming from the baby pixie Piff.

"Anyone get the feeling that Layla cares more about the pixies than actual people?" Brandon asked as delicately as he could. The entire time they had been in the Under Realm, she had been hell bent on finding them and she didn't care what she need to sacrifice to get that to happen.

"You've gotta remember that we've only just met Layla, and she's known the pixies since she was a little girl," Sky pointed out. "It's only natural that you bond with the people you've known for longer."

"Not always," Birdy squawked from where he sat perched on the back of one of the ships chairs.

"Oh hey! These are the pixies you guys," Bloom introduced to the girls as the pixies all fluttered their way out of the ship. As if to prove Sky wrong and Birdy right, Musa and Flora's eyes all became glazed in that same trance like state that Stella and Bloom went into when they first saw the pixies. Tecna probably would have too, except she was far to focused on the hand held computer in her hand that she was view the pixies through.

"How fascinating. Is that actual pixidum . . ." Tecna trailed off as she looked up from her screen to see Digit in the flesh. Her turquoise eye suddenly glazed over. "Oh my, how adorable."

"Tecna, this is Digit," Layla introduced as the digital pixie moved forward to give the digital fairy a tiny little hug.

"My name is Tune. I am the Pixies of Manners," Tune introduced herself politely to Musa. "I love your hair style. It's so . . . um . . . unique."

"Thanks. It's like my signature," Musa gushed, unfazed by the small paused.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," Riven groaned, watching the pair of them. Of all the damn pixies in the world, Musa _had_ to be bonded with that particular one.

"You really don't like pixies, huh?" Sky noted.

"Of course not. They're small and annoying," (1) Riven told him, physically flinching as Chatta open her mouth.

"So you're name's Flora! Do you have a boyfriend?" Chatta asked loudly, and then, not waiting for Flora to reply, she began shooting off a whole bunch of other questions. "I bet you do! What's his name? Is he a big time cutie?"

"I'm sorta flying solo," Flora told her when the little pixie had to stop for air.

"Don't worry! We're going to find you one before the semester is up!" Chatta promised her before moving onto a different topic of conversation. "Wonna hear about our adventure? I was so brave! I fought this gigantic snake!"

"Come on, let's go inside you guys and I'll give you a tour of the school, kay?" Bloom suggested, oblivious to the fact that her pet rabbit Kiko was jumping at her feet trying to get her attention to show her a piece of paper that was in his paws. His best efforts seemed to be in vain since all of Bloom's attention was focused on Lockette.

"We want to see your room," Lockette told the red haired fairy.

"Okay, but it's probably a mess, at least it was when I left what with Flora's vines and my laundry," Bloom warned her, walking off towards her room without even saying goodbye to Sky. The prince felt a little bummed about that, but it was nothing compared to how bad Kiko felt.

"Look, Kiko," Sky grinned, cupping the rabbit under his chin with a finger. "If you want a girls attention, you've got to play it real cool."

Kiko, however, wasn't interested in any advice so he shoved Sky off.

"Alright, take it easy. Just trying to give you a little man to man advice but fine, do things your way."

"Dude, you're talking to a rodent," Riven pointed out, heading back into the ship. "Let's go."

"Actually, a rabbit is not classified as a rodent," Timmy explained. "You see, rodents have four incisors teeth – two on the top and two on the bottom – while a rabbit had six, the extra two located directly behind the two front ones which means that – "

"Oh, shut up."

"I'm confused, was that mission a success or not?" Sky asked Brandon as he watched Kiko pout. The squire gave one look at his princess, who beamed back at him and at once he knew the answer.

"Successful," Brandon answered with a grin. "Definitely."

* * *

"How did you think you know, like when you're in a relationship with someone, that it's time to take things further," Brandon asked as he slouched at his desk in his dorm, watching the rain pound on the window.

"What do ya mean?" Sky asked sleepily. The prince was on his bed lying on his back with his hands folded behind his head, trying to fight the urge not to fall asleep before dinner.

"How do you think you know when your ready to take a relationship further with a person?"

"You mean Stella? You've already asked her to be exclusive with you so how much further can you take your . . ." Sky started, but his blue eyes snapped open when he realized exactly what his best friend was hinting at. His mind fully awake now, Sky rolled over on his stomach so he could look at Brandon the right way up. "I dunno. I guess it's just one of those things you gotta know for yourself."

"Yeah, but how do you know when you know?" Brandon asked, confusing himself for a second. "I mean, is it a definite thing that you just know for sure, or is it a slight feeling? Or is it nothing at all so you spend your whole time wondering if you know and looking for signs that are never going to be there?"

"You've been thinking about this a lot," Sky noted. He could always tell whenever Brandon over analysed things. "Can I ask what brought it on?"

"Well, a whole lot of things, I guess. I mean, Stella and I have gotten pretty serious lately. We're exclusive now, she's wearing the ring I brought her, she's got my Red Fountain heroes jacket and I've told her that I love her."

"That is pretty serious," Sky agreed.

"And also, I . . ."

"What?"

"When I was in Down Land, Amentia brought to my attention the fact that she planned to finalize our marriage in all it aspects and I remember feeling regret that I was going to be denied having my first time with someone I really liked," Brandon confessed. Only with Sky could he be completely honest like that. Timmy was off somewhere so it was just the two of them in their dorm, so Brandon was free to open up to his deepest and most embarrassing feelings.

"That's fair enough," Sky nodded. "Do you think Stella feels the same way?"

"Yeah, I think so. She's kinda been dropping hints, like you saw how she was all over me on the way back from the Under Realm but I don't know if that means she wants to do it. I mean, we've fooled around a few times and – "

"Yeah, you don't have to tell me that. I've seen the two of you," Sky reminded his friend, remembering the time right after school started not long ago when he walked in on one very intense make out session between the princess and the squire.

"Dude, that was your fault for not knocking."

"This is my room too you know."

"Anyway, what do you think I should do?"

"I dunno, give people some kind of warning before they walk in on that kind of session. Isn't it traditionally a tie on the door knob?"

"Sky! I was referring to the other thing!"

"I know, I know. I'm just toying with you," Sky laughed before becoming serious again. "I dunno. Talk to Stella about it."

"Well that was a big help," Brandon huffed, folding his arms across his chest. "Although, I should have known better than to ask you for advice. I mean, you're still to shy to ask Bloom to go exclusive with you."

Sky couldn't keep a faint flush of embarrassment enter his cheeks. "I'm getting to it."

"Well you better hurry up before she finds some other pretty boy to hang with. Didn't you tell me she was perving on that paladin right in front of you? What if he came flying in and snatched Bloom away from you? Huh? I bet you'd be kicking yourself for not asking Bloom to be exclusive with you sooner."

"Bloom would never run of with that bird brain," Sky told his friends, but his face gradually became more troubled as he recalled the way Bloom had all but drooled at that paladin. "Why? What have you heard?"

Brandon suddenly burst out laughing. "I'm just messing with you man. Bloom's nuts over you, bro. I think you should definitely have a talk with her and make this flirtatious little game of yours official."

"I'll think about it," Sky promised, though still completely terrified of the possibility that Bloom might reject him. "But you need to talk to Stella as well."

"I'll think about it," Brandon repeated with a mocking grin before getting to his feet. "Now let's go see what's for dinner. I am positively starving."

* * *

"Alright, settle," Javelin ordered his class quietly and his class instantly went silent; a feat that would require a lot of yelling by any other teacher. "Now I've marked all your papers, and while I am very pleased with the amount of effort that you boys put into your arguments, I was surprised at the fact that virtually all of you choose to debate who would win in the ultimate battle; pirates or ninjas."

"Pirates!" half the class instantly yelled.

"Ninjas!" the other half shouted.

"Oh gods," Javelin groaned as his class launched themselves into a massive shouting match over the ultimate battle. The teenagers were just about to break out into an out and out riot over the issue when the sound of someone laughing reached all of their ears. Looking towards the door of the classroom, everyone froze when they saw that standing there was none other than Saladin himself.

"I don't think I've ever seen one of your classes act like that before, Javelin," the headmaster chuckled.

"It's not my fault sir. For some reason they all decided to act like six year olds today," Javelin informed the older man with a completely straight face.

Saladin chuckled again before returning is attention back to the reason he was there in the first place. "I was wondering if I might be able to borrow Brandon and Sky for the rest of the day."

"Take them," Javelin replied instantly. "The less kids I have to deal with today the better."

Both Brandon and Sky quickly gathered up their notes while their classmates watched them enviously. Once they had all their belongings, the two Eraklyains bolted for the door while Javelin tried to once again teach his lesson.

"Is something wrong, sir?" Sky asked as he followed Saladin down the corridor.

"No, not at all," Saladin answered. "At least, nothing outside of the general chaos that happens around this place. My grandson Helia will be arriving shortly from Magix's space port and in half an hour I'm supposed to have a phone conference with the school directors about the unveiling of the new campus so I was wondering if it would be possible for the two of you to give him a tour of the school, or at least what's left of it."

"Of course sir," Sky said on behalf of Brandon and himself. "Like we said before, we'd be more than happy to show your grandson around and try to make him feel welcome here."

"Thank you. I know I can always count on the two of you no matter what the task may be," Saladin praised them. "You're both fine examples of what we aim to teach here at Red Fountain."

"We're honoured you think so, sir," Brandon said, almost overflowing with pride as the three of them made it to the front doors of the main building and entered the front courtyard. And standing there waiting them was Saladin's grandson, Helia.

Given the small height of the Headmaster, Helia was a lot taller than both the boys were expecting. Dressed all in loose clothing made out of natural fabrics, the new arrival was thin but the boys could tell that his body was made up with lean muscle which made it hard for them to determine how he might handle in a combat situation. Helia's skin was pale and contrasted by the boys black hair which reached most of the way down his back and was held back in a pony tail. Although both Brandon and Sky new that Helia was their age, his blue eyes held a maturity that made him appear older and no emotion was displayed on his face or in his stance as he turned to regard the trio that had just exited the building.

"Helia," Saladin greeted warmly, striding forward to clasp his grandson's hand fondly. "I'm glad you made it here alright. It's a long flight from Ossacip to Red Fountain."

"With space ships these days, trips can no longer be considered long when compared to how we used to travel," Helia said wisely with a small smile curling up the corners of his mouth.

"Very true," Saladin agreed, before regarding his grandson properly. "My goodness, how you've grown. I don't remember you ever being this much taller than me. And you resemble your mother greatly."

"So people tell me. She sends her best and says that she misses you."

"How sweet of her."

"She also says that she's been looking to some excellent nursing homes since people of your age should not be left to live on their own."

"Oh, she is a wicked child, isn't she? I was hoping that she was going to grow out of that roguish behaviour when she stopped being a teenager, but she's just as cheeky now as she was when she was seventeen."

"I'm sure she'll be glad to hear that."

"Yes, no doubt," Saladin grinned before turning to introduce the two students standing behind him, watching the exchange. "This is Prince Sky and Brandon from Eraklyon. They're both juniors here at Red Fountain and two of the finest students I have had the privilege of teaching over the years. They have offered to show you around Red Fountain and their dorm is right next door to the room I've arranged for you so if you have any questions please do hesitate to ask them."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Helia greeted tranquilly with formal nod of the head.

"Right back at ya, man," Brandon said, purposely trying to break the formal mood of the greeting. "Don't worry, me and Sky gotcha back here, man. If you need anything, just ask us, kay?"

"Okay," Helia nodded, but his tone didn't sound too certain.

Helia had grown up living a very comfortable life with a very important family. While his life was nothing like the ones those born into royalty had, Helia's father was an important politician acting as a Foreign Minister and his mother, Saladin's daughter, was a powerful person in the medical community, so Helia had lived a much grander life then most people ever do. Helia had always been sent to the right schools and taught how to behave in a way that was socially accepting, so such colloquialism like what Brandon was using was not something he was quite used too. Even at Ossacip School of Art, which taught all forms of drama, visual arts, photography, music, dance and writing, the students all maintained a dignified sense of formalism while still feeling free to express themselves creatively.

Red Fountain, he had been warned, was nothing like Ossacip School of Art.

* * *

"I tell ya, I can't get a read on this Helia guy," Brandon sighed as he collapsed down into one of the seats at the table where Timmy and Riven were having lunch. Some of the squire's salad fell off his plate as he dropped his lunch tray on the table, but the exhausted looking teen paid no attention to it.

"How do you mean?" Timmy asked, brushing a piece of lettuce back towards Brandon's plate. "Is he rude?"

"No, nothing like that," Brandon said, picking up his sandwich and staring at it with no real urge to eat it. "He's kinda like Javelin in the sense that his so damn tranquil you have no idea what he's thinking. The entire time me and Sky were showing around what's left of the campus he barely said anything. He'd just observe things and maybe comment on some obscure part of it, but other than that he was completely silent. It's just weird."

"So he's a quiet person. There's nothing wrong with that," Timmy pointed out. "Some people just prefer not to talk just for the sake of talking."

"Well, I'm not one of those people," Brandon said stubbornly.

"We've noticed," Riven mumbled around his lunch.

"And I hate it when people don't say what's on their minds," Brandon told them. "It's like a frozen lake – "

"What?" both Timmy and Riven said in unison. Brandon could be really obscure at times.

" – cause you know that there's stuff happening under the water, but you can't see it because of the ice. I know that Helia's got stuff in his head, but I can't read him to try and figure out what that might be."

"Brandon, you just met him a few hours ago," Timmy highlighted. "He's not going to start spilling his soul out to you right away. Give it time. Get to know each other first, then you might be able to get a better reading on him. Where is he now?"

"Him and Sky are still getting their lunches," Brandon said, twisting in his seat to scan the mess hall. "In fact, here they come now. Yo Sky! Over here!"

"Huh, Helia's taller than I thought he would be," Timmy noted as the prince and the grandson of the headmaster made their way over to their table.

Brandon quickly spun around to point a warning finger at Riven. "Now be nice."

"Why do you always say that whenever we meet someone new?" Riven asked.

"Do I really need to answer that?"

"Hey guys," Sky greeted as he and Helia took a seat at the table. "This is Saladin's grandson. Helia. Helia, this is Timmy, Riven and of course you already know Brandon."

"Nice to meet you," Timmy grinned, but Helia was looking at Riven with a slightly puzzled expression on his face.

"Riven? You're name is Riven?" Helia asked. Timmy, Sky and Brandon all felt their guts twist in dread as an un-amused sneer spread across Riven's face.

"Yeah," the burgundy haired teen answered simply, his voice lacking a friendly tone that one might use when addressing someone new.

"As in the verb rive; strike or rend asunder; wrench; split; be split?" (2)

"What did you do? Swallow a dictionary?" Riven snarled. Brandon quickly reached across the table and hit his friend over the head. "Hey! What'd you do that for?"

"I told you; be nice," Brandon said.

"That was nice. I could have said much nastier if I really wanted to put the effort in."

"Haven't you ever been told 'if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all'?"

"Yeah. Do I listen? Not really," Riven shrugged and the look Brandon gave him was murderous.

"So, Helia, what do you think of Red Fountain so far?" Timmy asked in an attempt to change the conversation to something that wasn't so potentially dangerous.

"It's quite impressive," Helia answered honestly, somewhat relieve for a distraction from the two quarrelling teens. "The history behind the grounds is fascinating and that's something I didn't appreciate last time I was here."

"Yeah but how long ago was that?" Brandon questioned before shoving as much of his sandwich as he could manage into his mouth.

"Um, I would have been about nine so that's something like seven years ago."

"And have you ever considered enrolling yourself at Red Fountain?" Sky asked. "I'm sure Saladin would be able to find a place for you here."

"I know that my grandfather would love it if I transferred here to attend his school, but unfortunately heroics and bravery have never really appealed to me."

Sky found that to be somewhat surprising given that Helia was a direct descendant of Saladin, one of the universes greatest heroes. "Really?"

"Yeah, I just can't see the reason behind battles and fighting so I don't have any desire to transfer to a school whose main objective is teaching its students how to kill one another."

"That's not true," Sky objected as diplomatically as he could. "Red Fountain's objective is not to turn its students into murders, but to educate her students so that they may help people and stop injustice from happening all over the universe."

"Perhaps, but combat and tactics are two major subjects taught here which encourages violence and aggression between individuals. I not meaning to offend you guys or your school but I don't think that fighting is the correct path for the future."

"So you're opposed to fighting," Timmy noted.

Helia shrugged. "It just doesn't fit with my fathers ideals of pacifism which I happen to agree with."

"Wait a minute, are you telling me that the grandson of the Headmaster of Red Fountain is a pacifist?" Riven laughed callously. "Now that's what I call ironic."

"Riven, what did I tell you?" Brandon scolded.

"What? It's funny."

"Riven!"

"Alright, alright. I'm goin'," Riven told them, picking up what was left of his lunch and getting to his feet. "Pacifism. What a joke."

"Is he always that welcoming?" Helia asked pleasantly as Riven walked off, still chuckling to himself.

"Yeah, pretty much," Brandon sighed tragically. Though on the inside, he knew that all three of them felt as though Riven has said what they had all been thinking. Red Fountain just wasn't a place for pacifism, and there was no way someone with Helia's ideals were going to last in a place like this.

* * *

"Do you think Saladin's going to be able to convince Helia to transfer here?" Brandon asked Sky that night while the two of them were in their dorm. Timmy had gone to the hanger to install a few new upgrades he had created for the squad ship and Riven had vanished somewhere to do as he pleased, leaving Sky and Brandon alone. The squire had filled his evening by starting his homework before getting distracted by the storm that was happening outside. Now he was ignoring his homework so he could stare into the mirror and try to make his hair fall a little differently just in case it looked better than the way he normally wore it.

"I don't think so," Sky answered, glancing between his phone and the clock that was sitting on the dresser beside his bed. So far that had been all he had done all night. "I mean the guy's a pacifist, and although I don't agree with the way he put it, Red Fountain does major in combat and tactics. Helia's a nice enough guy, but I just don't think he'd fit in here."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Brandon agreed. "He's kinda hard to read, too. Like he's not unfriendly or anything, but he is kinda aloof, don't cha think?"

"Yeah, whatever," Sky dismissed, snatching up his phone and scrolling through his phonebook till he got to Bloom's number. He had already called her five times already tonight, but he was yet to talk with the last Princess of Sparx.

And as Bloom's voicemail message started to play, Sky got the feeling that he wasn't going to speak to her tonight. "Hey, it's Bloom and Kiko. Here's the beep."

"Something's not right," Sky said, hanging up his phone without leaving a message. He had already left two and he didn't want to look obsessive. Brandon continued to fiddle with his hair the mirror. "Bloom hasn't answered her phone all night and we had a phone date scheduled three hours ago."

"Don't worry dude," Brandon told his best friend. "She's probably just out with another guy."

"This isn't jealousy here. I don't get jealous. I'm just worried something bad could have happened," Sky snapped as lightning flashed outside. "I mean, I know that Bloom's more than capable of taking care of herself, but there's a lot of stuff she doesn't understand. She did spend most of her life on Earth, after all, and Magix is totally different than Earth."

"Would you relax? I'm sure she's fine," Brandon assured Sky before a mischievous grin spread across his face. "Besides, if something bad did happen I'm sure that paladin could fly in and save her again."

Sky snapped at that point. Grabbing his levi bike keys he headed for the door. "That's it. I'm going over there."

"What? Sky, don't be ridiculous. I was just messing with you. Maybe Bloom just forgot about you phone date. These things happen after all. You don't want to go all the way over there and make a fool of yourself. Besides, it's raining outside."

"I know but I just want to make sure she's okay," Sky said, opening the door at the same time Timmy was going to open it. The teenaged genius jumped as the prince almost ran into him, causing his glasses to slip down the bridge of his nose. "Oh, sorry Timmy."

"It's okay," Timmy assured him as he fixed his glasses. "What's happening?"

"Sky reckons that he's going to drive all the way to Alfea to check on Bloom since she failed to answer her phone five times in a row," Brandon explained evenly.

"It was six," Sky muttered as if that made a shred of difference.

Timmy stared at Sky in disbelief. "But it's raining outside."

"I know that! But I'm worried about Bloom!" Sky snapped. He wasn't an idiot and yet his friends were treating him like one. Why couldn't they see that he was just worried about the girl he had feelings for?

"Sky, think about it. How are you going to explain to Bloom that you got all worked up just because she didn't answer her phone?" Timmy put to the prince. "You don't want to freak the girl out or suffocate her, and driving out in the middle of a storm might look a bit controlling."

"Controlling? I'm not controlling."

"I know, but it might look that way to Bloom."

Sky suddenly felt torn between his insane desire to check up on Bloom and the fear for him not too appears controlling. Finally, the blonde tossed his keys onto his desk and collapsed onto his bed, a sour look on his face throughout the entire process. "Dammit Timmy! Why do you always have to be so damn logical all the time?"

"It's a gift and a curse," Timmy sighed tragically, sitting down in front of his computer. "Now what brought this on? Normally you're really relax and laid back when it comes to Bloom – "

"No he isn't," Brandon interrupted. "He turns into a massive worry wart if she so much as breaks a nail."

" – and it's not like you to be so possessive."

"I dunno," Sky shrugged. "I guess ever since Layla and the pixies showed up, I felt like I've kinda taken a back seat. Every time I talk to Bloom she's distracted by Lockette, and like when we dropped them off after returning from the Under Realm, she didn't even say goodbye to me. It's like all her attention is focused on the pixies and she no longer has time for me."

"Hey, you're like Kiko," Brandon noticed with a wide grin.

"I am not like Kiko!"

"Want a carrot?"

"Oh shut up!"

"What are you juveniles squabbling about now?" a deep voice asked from the door and then three boys looked up to see Riven leaning in their doorframe and he was completely soaked. His clothes were drenched and his hair sagged slightly from its usual height due to the rain that had collected in there.

"What have you been up to?" Brandon demanded to know.

"Nothin'. It's just raining outside."

Sky snapped at that point. "I know! Okay? I know it's fricking raining outside! I've got a window here so I can see for myself! I don't need a weather update every three seconds!"

"Well that was unexpected," Riven said dryly as everyone stared at Sky in shock. "Anyways, like I was saying, it's raining outside and I really don't feel like sleeping out in a tent in that weather. Can I crash on your floor?"

"Yeah, sure. Go for it," Brandon told him. "Just dry yourself off first."

Instead of going and finding a towel like any civilized person might do, Riven complied with Brandon's request by shaking his body like dog, which in turn sent water flying everywhere to cause Timmy to freak out.

"Stop it! This is a new computer!" Timmy shouted, trying to shield his precious computer from the droplets of water. "The last one got destroyed when all the ice melted after the witches attack and I will not lose this one in the same way!"

"Calm down Timmy," Brandon grinned as Riven sat down on the ground not far from him. The squire could resist reaching over and messing up his friend's damp hair in the same way one might do with a dog. "I dunno why I was so upset about leaving Lady behind on Eraklyon when we got you, Riv. You can be our new pet."

Riven jerked his head out of Brandon's reach. "Touch me like that again and I'll piss in your shoes."

"Lady wouldn't do that. She was house trained."

"Oh piss off."

"Guys, what do I do with Bloom?" Sky asked, sitting upright. He needed to get the conversation back to focusing on his dilemma if he was going to find any peace of mind. Unfortunately, Riven had missed that part of the conversation so he had no idea what they were talking about, so instead he just made his own assumptions to what the prince was talking about.

"Weren't you listening in Sex Ed?" the burgundy haired specialist asked.

"No! I mean about the phone."

"You guys are having phone sex?"

"No! She won't answer her phone!"

"Well that explains why you're so agitated."

"_Argh!"_ Sky screamed through clenched teeth, collapsing onto his back and covering his face with his pillow to muffle the sound of his frustrated screams. Riven and Timmy both stared at the prince in shock for the second time that night. Brandon, on the other hand, was doubled over, howling with laughter.

* * *

The next morning, Brandon opened his eyes slowly and one glance at his clock told him that he had woken up long before his alarm was due to go off. And even though the squire was wide awake with no chance of him falling back asleep again, Brandon felt no desire to get up since he was far too comfortable and his bed was far too warm for him to want to venture out of it.

Wrapping his blankets tightly around him, Brandon snuggled deeper down into his bed and viewed his room from his comfortable position. Sunlight spilled through the window, basking the room in a soft yellow light that made Brandon think of Stella. Everyone else was asleep, giving Brandon the chance to observe them all without objection.

One look at Sky and Brandon could tell that his best friend had not had a peaceful nights sleep. His blonde hair stuck out in all directions as a result of him tossing restlessly in his sleep. Even as he slept, Sky looked distressed and he still had his phone tightly clenched in his hand just in case Bloom called.

Timmy, on the other hand, looked as though he had slept as contently as a log, if logs could be called content.

Riven was one of those amazing people who could sleep absolutely anywhere and in any position, which meant that he never had to worry about finding a place to sleep if he got kicked out of his room for whatever reason. Which is why, instead of sleeping in a tent during the middle of a storm, Riven had been more than happy to crash on his friends dorm room floor. He didn't need a pillow or a blanket or anything like that. He was satisfied with just curling up on the floor like Lady used to do and drift off to sleep.

Brandon was still grinning at the similarities between the teenager and the dog that had been left behind on Eraklyon when Riven suddenly shot upright, causing Brandon to almost jump out of his skin. But Riven didn't even notice that the squire was awake since all his attention was focused on the muscles of his upper right leg which were cramping up to cause agonizing pain.

During class last year, Riven's leg had been impaled by a large shard of glass. Due to a side affect of Darcy messing with his head, Riven had been unable to feel that pain of it an as a result he had kept pushing it and never let it heal properly. But now that Darcy's spell had been lifted, Riven was able to feel his mistake in full force. Hissing through his teeth at the pain, Riven frantically massaged his cramping muscles in a desperate bid to get them to relax, and Brandon knew that there was nothing he could do to lessen his friend's agony. That wound and any other issues Riven had as a result with dealing with the Trix would eventually fade, but that was going to take time.

As the cramp faded, Riven collapsed back onto his back and stared at the ceiling, breathing heavily. As soon as he was able, Riven struggling to his feet and limped out of the room so he could let his friends sleep, and Brandon watched him go knowing that even though Riven was talking and hanging out with them again, they still had a long way to go before things were back to how they used to be.

* * *

_You don't want to freak the girl out or suffocate her . . . _

Timmy's voice kept repeating over and over again around Sky's head. Despite the fact that Timmy wasn't exactly a Casanova or an expert on the female species, the boy did have a good point. Sky didn't want to freak Bloom out and he didn't want to be the suffocating or controlling boyfriend like he had seen other boys do. But twenty-four hours after their planned phone date, he was yet to hear anything from Bloom.

"I'll try her one more time," Sky said to himself ask he hit the redial button on his phone. "Surely she'll answer this time."

Sky's foot tapped impatiently as he listened to the sound of the dial tone and a few seconds later, he heard the voice of the girl he was totally smitten with. "Hey."

"Hi Bloom, it's – "

" – it's Bloom and Kiko. Here's the beep."

"Dammit!" Sky snapped, throwing his phone onto his bed with a little more force than was necessary. After pacing for a few seconds, the prince decided on a course of action and grabbed his bike keys. He was going to make sure that Bloom was alright, once and for all. And he wasn't going alone. "Brandon! Get up!"

"Huh?" Brandon asked dumbly, waking up from the light doze he was having. "What?"

"We're going for a drive," Sky informed his best friend, throwing the squires helmet at him.

"Do I have to go? Can't you go by yourself or take Timmy or Riven?"

"No! Get up!"

"But I'm totally exhausted."

"Brandon! Move!"

In a daze, Brandon did as he was told. Once they were out on the road, the cold night air had managed to wake the squire up to a point where he was able to think clearly, and he still had no idea why Sky demanded he go for a drive with him. And he couldn't help but notice that they were making a bee line towards Alfea. "Sky, what are we doing?"

"I just wonna check on Bloom," Sky put simply, not taking his eyes off the road.

Brandon knew he shouldn't be surprised, but he still couldn't believe that his best friend was going so nuts about this whole Bloom not answering her phone thing. "So swing by tomorrow afternoon."

"Well I don't want her to know I'm checking up on her."

"So we're spying," Brandon noted.

"No! I . . . I just don't want to look obsessive."

"Right, right," Brandon muttered as the two of them entered the grounds of Alfea. Everything was dark, so the headlights of their levi bikes cut through the blackness sharply. Two magibeves flinched as the lights fell across them, and Brandon could almost swear that the male of the two was glaring at them with his beady little eyes. "Hey! Check it out, dude! I think we interrupted a tender moment."

But Sky wasn't entertained by the irritated rodents. Stopping his bike and removing his helmet, Sky wasted no time getting off his bike so he could observe his surroundings better. "Ah, one of these trees ought to do."

"For what?" Brandon asked, and he got his answer to his question in the form of Sky flipping up into the tree so he could spy through the windows. "You've got to be kidding me."

But, like any good squire would, Brandon climbed up the tree behind his prince.

"You hear that, dude?" Sky asked as soon as Brandon had joined him the thick branch of the tree. "It sounds like they're having a party."

"So what if they are?" Brandon sighed as Sky pulled out a high tech monocle that Timmy had invented during freshmen year when they were doing their surveillance unit. "Bro, I'm tired. Let's go back to Red Fountain and you cam see Bloom later. How does that sound?"

But Sky paid no attention to what his best friend was saying. Using the x-ray monocle, he was able to zoom in on one of the windows and make out two silhouettes, and one of them seemed very familiar. The other was a stranger to Sky, but there was no denying that the figure was a male. "I think that's Bloom."

"Er, what were you saying about you not being the jealous type?"

"Wait a minute! What's going on here? Who is that guy?" Sky demanded as he watched Bloom and this mystery guy play some strange chasing game. Leaning forward to get a better look, Sky put too much weight on one of the slimmer branches, causing it to break off and hurl towards the ground. Sky quickly returned his attention back to Bloom, but Brandon watched as the branch fell down to hit the male magibeve that they had annoyed earlier on the head.

"Careful, you don't wonna get the magibeves mad," Brandon warned, but again Sky ignored his friend.

"Just give me a sec," Sky said, focusing on Bloom again. He really wasn't liking what he was seeing. Brandon rolled his eyes at his friend, but then they widened as the tree the two of them were perched in started to shake.

"Huh?" Brandon gasped, looking down and too his horror he saw the magibeves chewing through the trunk of the tree with rapid determination. "Huh? Uh-oh."

Ever since the boys had become friends, the two of them had dragged each other into various awkward and uncomfortable situations that the two of them swore that they would never forgive the other for. And for Brandon, one of those was definitely going to be being dragged out to Alfea when he'd rather be asleep and climbing a tree to spy on someone only to have that tree sawn in half by two rodents till the tree fell, taking the boys with it.

"Dude, can we please go now?" Brandon begged as he lay in the branches, blood tricking out of several small but none the less painful scratches.

"Yeah. We can go," Sky answered in a small voice.

"Thank you."

* * *

_(1) I have nothing personal against the pixies, but it is annoy to suddenly have to write in six new main characters into every chapter. I have a suspicion that the show creators discovered the exact same thing, which is why the pixies all have such a small part in the third season and in the movie _

_(2) That's copied straight from my dictionary, the Little Oxford Dictionary. It's so small and cute_

_I made the decision a long time ago that I didn't what Helia's inclusion into their group of friends as seamless and rushed as it was with Layla and the Winx Club. For me, that just went too fast. I mean, one minute they're just meeting the girl and the next Stella's planning to make her one of her bridesmaids, when they really don't know anything about the girl. And Riven's cramping leg is a physical representation of the fact that he's still healing form his time with the Trix. How deep am I?_

_Victory is mine!_


	8. Party Monster

_Okay, there is something about me that I think you all should know; I can't speak Latin. I can speak pig Latin, but other than that the only languages I know are English and bad English. This usually doesn't affect me much, but in this chapter it does. _

_During this episode, Sky goes up to the girls and greets them formally . . . and I have no idea what he says. I'm pretty sure it's Latin, but I can't translate it or tell if I'm even spelling it right. I even checked the web for Latin related sites and even though I did find some very useful, everyday sayings such as __**"Utinam barbari alum tuum invadant!"**__ (roughly "May barbarians invade your armpits!"), __**"Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure" **__(I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear) and of course that famous saying __**"Sed semper ubi sububi in caput meum" **__(But I always wear my underpants on my head), I couldn't find anything that resembles what Sky says to them. So if any of you have a clue to what the hell is going on there, don't hesitate to let me know so I can fix it up and not look like an idiot._

_Anyway, now that I have prepared you for my failing, here you go . . . _

* * *

**Chapter Eight – Party Monster **

"Who do you think that guy was the other night?" Sky asked during training. The unveiling of Red Fountain's new campus was fast approaching, though the students could see no visible evidence of any construction on the foundations of the ruined castle. None the less, Saladin assured everyone that the new campus would be revealed to them shortly and that there would be a large scale celebration with many opportunities for the boys to show off their impressive talents in the forms of combat competition, squad ship flight displays and dragons wrangling. In the days leading up to the unveiling of the new campus, Red Fountain's students spent virtually all their time preparing for the festivities.

But not all of them had just their training on their mind.

"Does it really matter?" Brandon groaned. He had been listening to Sky go on about Bloom and this mystery guy for the last few days and frankly he was getting really sick of talking about it.

Unfortunately for Brandon, Sky was not. "You didn't see the way she was chasing him."

"Really? How did I miss that, I wonder? Oh yeah, that's right, the tree fell on me," Brandon spat.

"Hey that wasn't my fault."

"Sure it wasn't. All you did was drag me out there when I would rather be asleep and then proceeded to piss the magibeves off with your paranoia."

"It wasn't paranoia. It was a stick."

"Oh shut up!" Brandon finally snapped. It was at that point that Timmy felt it was time that he stepped in before this escalated any further.

"Hey guys? What was that attack you were telling me about? The Four Horsemen Blast or something like that?" Timmy asked. He knew that wasn't the name of the attack, but it was the only thing he could think of to distract his friends.

And from the look on Sky's face, it worked. "It's called the Four Swordsmen Blast, Timmy. Not Horsemen. And it sounds totally awesome."

"The Four Swordsmen Blast?" Riven repeated sceptically. "What the hell?"

"The Eraklyon Swords Master was telling me about it this summer," Sky explained. "Basically it's just merging the telepathic skills that you use when wrangling a dragon with a phantom blade to produce an attack." (1)

A look of astonishment and interest failed to cross Riven's face. In fact, by the look of it, he hadn't understood a word Sky had said. "Say what?"

"If four or more people focus their mental energy into their phantom blades and then cross them over, the combined mental energy will cause the crystal compounds of the blades will react with each other and create an explosive energy. It sounds really cool."

"Why four or more people?" Timmy asked. "Why not two or three?"

"Because they figured out that the mental energy of an average mind isn't enough energy to trigger a reaction all on its own. Four people are minimum amount of people you need in order to have enough mental energy to cause a reaction and therefore trigger an attack," Sky answered.

Riven still didn't look convince. "Have you ever actually tried this attack?"

"No," Sky admitted. "But that's only because you have to have a close connection and be on the same wave length as the other three people you're charging the attack with or else you won't get an efficient blast."

"And let me guess, you figured that you'd wait and try it out with us?" Riven said in an unintentionally mocking tone, and Sky didn't care for it in the slightest.

"Look, if you don't wonna try, fine! Whatever, I don't care! I just thought it might be a useful attack for us to learn, that's all! But if you're gonna be a jerk about it just forget it!" Sky snapped. Riven rolled his eyes slightly, but he didn't follow through with one of his snide comments to instigate a larger argument like he would have a year ago.

"I don't understand how you focus your telepathic energy into a sword," Timmy said partly to get Sky's attention away from fight with Riven but also partly because he was curious to how this attack worked.

"Well, you know how we project our minds towards a dragon when we want to bend its will to our own?" Brandon asked and Timmy nodded. "It's pretty much the same thing except instead of a dragons mind it's a sword. Why don't you show him, Sky?"

"But didn't you just say that you needed at least four people to pull off an attack?" Timmy questioned.

"That's only if you want to make a blast," Sky explained, extending his blue phantom blade. Focusing his mind, the prince projected his mental energy into his blade, causing it to flash white hot for a second before turning deep navy as oppose to the light azure it usually was. "See? There's a little bit on energy in there, but I'd needed the three of you to do the same with your phantom blades to create an attack."

"How do you aim with it?"

"All four people have to focus on the same point of the target which is why the attack works best if everyone has a close connection with each other. Apparently the blast can backfire if just one person focuses on another part of the target than the other three people."

"Doesn't sound very reliable if you ask me," Riven muttered under his breath, but Sky still heard him.

"Why do you always have to be such a pessimist all the time?" Sky snapped, irritated at his friends never ending bad attitude.

"I'm not being pessimistic. I'm being realistic," Riven corrected, folding his arms across his chest. "Sorry, but I for one don't buy into this whole focus your spirit and make a wish shit. It just doesn't seem practical to me."

"Well nobody asked for your opinion," Sky spat. Riven's violet eyes narrowed slightly, but surprisingly he didn't counter with a comment of his own. An awkward silence fell over the group as Sky and Riven proceeded to glare each other down, but it was thankfully shattered as Codatorta's rough voice roared over the ruckus of the outdoor training plateaus to grab the attention of every Red Fountain student there.

"All right lads! The running order for tomorrows events have been completed, including the draw for combat duels! The program will be posted in various locations around the school, but we have also made up enough copies of it for you all to have one which I will be handing out now!" Codatorta barked, handing out stacks of programs to several students. "Take one and pass the rest on! This way we can assure ourselves that we have done everything save sitting you down and talking you through the program with you to let you know what is going on, so if you miss your duel, it's your own damn fault! Understood?"

"Yes sir!" everyone answered in unison as the stack of papers was passed around. The four boys quickly got their hands on a program each and read over the running order for tomorrows events.

"Looks like I'm competing against you, Riv, in the extreme fighting event," Sky noted and after all the attitude Riven had been giving him all day, the prince was looking forward to locking swords with his moody friend.

"Who the hell is Jamie?" Brandon asked, seeing who he was paired against. "There's no one by that name in our grade, is there?"

"No, I think he's a senior," Sky said.

"They must have run out of juniors to pair you with so they put you up against a senior," Timmy noted.

"Oh, Jamie? Yeah, I know him. He's a total pansy," Riven said.

Brandon felt somewhat relieved to hear that. Sure, Brandon was one of the best in his grade, but a senior would have a whole years worth of training and life experience over him. "Really?"

"Yeah. He's one of those guys who acts like a big man's man but every time he gets a girlfriend he turns into a total skirt," Riven told him. "Like, he's always on the phone to them, going over to their place just to see how they are, making 'em lunches and all that crap."

"So basically he's a pansy because he acts like a good boyfriend?" Brandon asked in an unimpressed tone.

"No, this isn't just my anti romantic side talking. He really does take it too far."

"Wait a minute. Isn't that the guy who left a week before school finished when we were in freshmen year because that fairy from Alfea that he was seeing started dating someone else without breaking it off with him first?" Brandon asked with a grin. That hissy fit was legendary in the halls of Red Fountain and Alfea. (2)

"That's him."

"How is he with a weapon?" Timmy asked.

"You mean with his spear? Apparently he's one of the best in his class."

Suddenly Brandon didn't feel so relieved. "Thanks man. You've been a real help."

"What do you think the new campus will be like?" Timmy asked, changing the subject yet again to try and avoid any conflict. A guy had to be quick on his feet if he was going to play referee with these three.

"I dunno," Sky answered. "But I can't wait to see it."

* * *

"I didn't know they invited witches to this thing," Brandon said as he watched a group of witches make their way through the front courtyard of the ruins of Red Fountain. He and the other guys had moved out into the warm morning sun while they waited for the Winx Club to arrive so that they could hang out with them until the big unveiling that Saladin promised everyone.

"Saladin invited them because of all the help they gave us at the end of last year and because they're trying to improve relations between Cloud Tower and the other schools," Timmy explained evenly.

"What? How come I haven't heard of any of this till now?" Brandon asked.

"Because with how enthralled you've been with Stella recently I'm surprised you notice that it gets darker at night and lighter in the morning," Sky muttered, causing Riven to bark a laugh.

"I've noticed that," Brandon spat before looking at the witches again. "I'm just not sure if we're moving too quickly with these witches by letting them into our place like this."

"Stop being so prejudiced," Riven ordered, giving a slight nod in greeting to one of the witches that had waved to him from across the courtyard. Unlike the other boys, Riven knew several of the witches that attended Cloud Tower to the point where he might even call them 'friends' and he actually found the witches dark personalities to be a relief from the Alfea fairies perky ones. "The universe is full of witches and you can't go your whole life avoiding them. They do have witches in Eraklyon, don't they? Or is the entire population of your realm made up only of you and Sky?"

"Oh shut up," Brandon snapped, though he did see that his friend had a point. It was ridiculous to go through life with these social barriers between people. It was time to put an end to all this foolishness and it had sense to start at the three finest schools for the three social groups. Alfea was doing its bit by allowing a witch to attend its school on exchange, and Red Fountain was not a school that allowed itself to be bested by anyone. But he still didn't have to like Riven's tone. "Besides, the girls have arrived."

Looking over to where Brandon was pointing, the boys spotted the six girls and their companion pixies sitting on a bench on the other side of the courtyard. The group of girls had somehow made it passed the boys surveillance while they were talking and apparently seemed too involved in their own conversation to notice the boys either.

"When did they get here?" Sky asked, but no one had an answer for him. "You know what? Never mind. Let's just go."

"Sounds like a plan," Brandon grinned as the four boys moved off.

"Look! The boys are here!" Stella squealed as soon as she noticed the boys. All the other girls perked up at the news, but the boys couldn't help but notice that Layla rolled her eyes slightly. Apparently she still hadn't forgiven them for being born with a Y chromosome.

"Let us formally welcome you, ladies," Sky said with a formal bow. _"Fair toda at armous."_

**(AN: that is the bit I was talking about earlier. If you have no idea what I'm going on about, read my note at the start of this chapter and if you can help me, please do)**

"Oh, how nice. Is that Latin for mi castle as su castle?" Stella asked mockingly.

"Hey the hero's welcome is a century's old tradition," Tune, the Pixie of Manners reminded the Princess of the Sun and the Moon. "How about a little decorum?"

"So, are you psyched for the dance or what?" Sky asked the girls.

"You know it," Stella answered before anyone else had a chance too. "In fact, Brandon and I learnt the rumba."

Stella looked like she was going to follow through with some other comment to express her excitement, but her attention was suddenly caught by Pete, one of Brandon's classmates, who grinned warmly at Stella as he walked by. "Hey Stella."

"Hi," Stella smiled back with somewhat flirty flutter of her eyelashes. Brandon felt a sudden stab of jealousy in his guts and he suddenly hated his classmate. "You know Pete? He was my fifth grade boyfriend."

"Sure," Brandon said in a cheery voice. He had spent the last few days making fun of Sky for being jealous about that paladin and there was no way he was going to give his prince at chance to return the mockery. "He was the one who told me all about your middle school nickname. You're hair was so frizzy they called you Frizztella."

Stella did not look impressed as her friends sniggered at her nickname and although Brandon did feel a bit guilty for humiliating his girlfriend like that – even if it wasn't really that humiliating – but it made up for the jealous feelings he got when she had greeted Pete the way she did.

Trying to spare her best friend some of her dignity and also because she could no longer contain her excitement, Bloom jumping up, beaming at everyone with one of her amazing smile that always made Sky's knees go weak. "I'm excited to see how they redid the stadium!"

"Me too," Sky agreed. "My dad said they went all out."

Even though everyone's attention had moved on from her middle school nickname, Stella still felt there was reason to explain the name. "Hey, I was still searching for the right conditioner but it was middle school. Cut me some slack."

"Relax Stella," Brandon smiled encouragingly at her. He couldn't care less if she had fizzy hair. He wasn't in love with her just for her looks, even though they were pretty damn good. "You know, we all had nicknames. I was Brandito."

"Are you kidding?" Riven asked, raising one eyebrow.

"No, it was cool. Why, what did they call you?" Brandon asked, but all he got as an answer was a blank, emotionless stare. The squire had forgotten rule number one; never expect Riven to reveal anything about his childhood. "You know what, never mind."

"Um, guys, Saladin's presentation is going to start in a little while so we'd head over to the stadium," Timmy suggested, glancing at his watch.

"Good idea. We don't wonna get stuck with a crappy view of what's happening," Sky said, moving off towards the stadium with the others following him. "But then again it's hard to guess what might be a good spot since we've still go no idea what's going to happen."

"Yeah. It doesn't look like they've done any kind of renovation work on the old school," Bloom said as she walked along beside him.

"That hasn't gone unnoticed by us," Sky grinned at her and she beamed back. "You've been pretty busy lately, haven't you?"

"I guess."

"Too busy to go magi skating tomorrow?" Sky asked her with a small laugh.

Bloom grinned coyly. "I can fit that in."

"Then it's a date," Sky finalized.

But then Bloom's eyes widened as she suddenly remembered something, and even before she opened her mouth Sky felt his hopes drop. "Oh wait. I have to get started on Professor Avalon's paper."

"Er, who's Professor Avalon?" Sky asked. He was pretty sure I knew all of the professors that taught at Alfea, but the name Avalon was not familiar to him at all.

"He's our new teacher. He's teaching Masters Workshop and he's the best _ever!_" Bloom exclaimed, jump in air at how much she admired her new teacher and Sky couldn't help but feel a bit jealous at the way her eye lit up at Avalon's name.

"Well, that's great. It sounds like he's really something," Sky said, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice but failing miserably at it. Ever since they had rescued the pixies, Sky had seen very little of Bloom and he found he was craving spending some time alone with her. And by the looks of it, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

"Oh, I almost forgot. He has to approve my paper topic," Bloom suddenly remembered and she quickly started off to go find him.

"I'll go with you," Sky offered. He knew he ran the risk of looking desperate or clingy, but he really didn't care. The last time he had been alone with her – as in truly alone, without their friends sitting mere meters away – was at prom last year.

But Bloom didn't accept his offer and started running off before Sky could stop her. "No, just save me a seat!" Bloom called as she left.

"What master workshop is he teaching?" Timmy asked Tecna while Sky pouted.

"He's teaching us Magiphilospy and he believes that we can increase our power by drawing on the strength of our families and our home realm," Tecna explained. "It's really quiet fascinating."

"Who cares what he's teaching, the guy is a mega cutie!" Stella squealed. A look of disapproval and jealous flashed across Brandon's face and it wasn't missed by the princess. "Oh, I'm sorry, Snookums, but he is. Sky can even back me up on this one. He's met him."

"I have?" Sky asked. He couldn't remember ever meeting someone called Avalon.

"Yes. Avalon was the paladin that saved us from the Trix in Shadow Haunt."

"The paladin is you're new teacher?!" Sky exclaimed in what the girls thought was surprise, but in what the guys clearly recognized as horror. They had all had heard him go on about the paladin that had swooped in a not only knock the Trix off their feet, but the Winx girls as well. The prince – who always insisted that he wasn't one to get jealous – had described every detail the paladins rescue to his friends, even when they begged him to stop, and they all knew that he was going to obsess about this all year.

"We'd better get to the stadium," Timmy said, trying to head off one of Sky's rants before he could get himself worked up. "They're going to start the ceremony soon."

"That's right and we want to get good seats," Tecna told them all, checking her watch. "Come on. Let's go."

"Dude, drop it," Brandon ordered his best friend before Sky had a chance to open his mouth.

"But – " Sky started.

"Drop it," Brandon said again, dragging Sky by the arm as the group headed off. Sky's sour mood continued as the group – now minus Bloom – made their way down the corridors of Red Fountain towards the stadium. Even after the Trix's had trashed the school, the Red Fountain battle stadium had received very little damaged, so it had been deemed safe to accommodate the crowd of heroes, fairies and witches for the unveiling of the new campus. They were still walking along the corridors when a slim arm linked itself through Brandon's and a familiar fragrance of perfume filled his senses.

"Are you okay?" Stella asked, her eyes serious. While she was admittedly a poor student when it came to her classes at Alfea, Stella was a perfect scholar when it came to her boyfriend, so she was aware when something was bothering him, even if he was doing his best to hide it.

"I'm fine," he assured her with a grin.

"Snookums," Stella said in a warning tone. "You can tell me. What's the matter?"

"It's nothing, really," Brandon told her, but he was helpless under those honey coloured eyes. "It's about Pete. I didn't like the way you smiled at him."

"Oh, Brandon," Stella gushed, caught up in romantic idea of her boyfriend getting jealous just because she waved at another man. "That's so sweet!"

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it. I told you before, I'm a very jealous man and I won't allow anyone steal you away, even if it means slaughtering my entire class," Brandon told her dramatically. Stella beamed up at him, enchanted by his devotion to her even if it did result in a massacre. "I love you Stella, and I shall prove my love to you by vanquishing my competition, starting today with the sword and shield event."

Stella made a sound that resembled a combination of sighing and groaning in delight, and she looked as though she was going to swoon as she stared up at her boyfriend adoringly.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Riven comment, overhearing the conversation.

"Hey Riven, are you competing today?" Musa asked him as they walked.

"I'm winning today," Riven corrected confidently, giving her a sly smirk that lacked even the slightest trace of modesty.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Sky said, rising out of his sulking state in order to knock Riven's ego back down to size.

"You guys are competing against each other?" Stella asked with a note of horror in her voice. "Haven't they worked out that the two of you can't be trusted with swords?"

"We're heroes. We have to play with weapons whether they trust us or not," Brandon informed the girls cheerfully. "It's part of the curriculum."

"How . . . encouraging?" Layla said uncertainly.

"I know. You guys have met Lex, haven't you? He's a great example of Red Fountain, but I wouldn't trust him with a burnt out match stick."

"He's kidding me, right?" Layla asked the other girls.

"Yeah," Stella grinned. "Although that bit about relying on Lex is right on the money."

"He's good value," Riven told them all since he – being the sadistic teen that he was – always got hours of entertainment out of Lex making a fool of himself.

"And he's pretty good with his short staff," Timmy added. "That is, provided he doesn't knock himself out with it by mistake."

"Sounds like they're teaching you guys heaps," Layla said with a sarcastic little smile, indicating that all the assistance Brandon and Sky had offered to her during their trip to the Under Realm had done nothing to changer her mind on the usefulness of men.

"All jokes aside, we take all forms of combat seriously at Red Fountain," Brandon told her, defending his school from the feminist. "I mean, I doubt you could find one person here who isn't passionate about weapons."

* * *

Helia could not care less about the sword and shield events that were scheduled for later that day. He didn't really care for the squad ships and jet display. He did like watching the dragon wrangling, but he did not approve of the way Codatorta kept them in line with his whips.

'Gods, what the hell am I doing here?' Helia thought to himself, slouching in his seat. All around him, people were entering the stadium for the opening ceremony, but he felt separated from it all. He wasn't looking forward to anything that had been scheduled for that day – not even the big after party that all the other people his age kept going on and on about – and he found himself wish that this week would end so that he could leave Red Fountain and return to Ossacip School of Art in the Realm of Vallisto where he could be with the rest of his friends there and resume his studies. He was getting sick of his grandfather trying to convince him to transfer to Red Fountain and although he would have loved to have made his grandfather happy, there was absolutely nothing here that made him want to stay.

Tired of staring at the crowd around him, Helia shook himself out of the haze of boredom that had descended onto him and drew his attention back to the sketch pad that lay open in his hands. When he had left Ossacip, they had just finished a study module on ink work and calligraphy, something that Helia had really come to enjoy. Picking up the paint brush, Helia dipped it into the ink pot sitting beside him before returning to the half draw picture that was on the page. Moving his wrist as smoothly as he could, Helia let the ink soaked hairs of the brush glide across the page in long, even curves that joined together to form the outline of his models; a flock of birds that swooped and skipped along the ground not far from where he sat.

Helia adored drawing animals and other forms of nature. He loved the winding curves and endless texture that went into recreating the beauty of the natural world. Last year, when his class had been doing a unit titled 'Humans and Nature', Helia had travelled with his class to Linphea, a realm where no modern technology existed and plants reigned supreme, where he had fallen completely in love with all things natural. Helia was never a fan of technology since he found it overly complicated and distracting, which was exactly what happened when the sound of some digital device broke his concentration, forcing him to look up from his drawing.

"_Hmm_," Helia grunted.

Standing not far from him was a group of students about his age who he quickly identified as Prince Sky and the other boys in his squad, as well as a few girls he didn't know. At a glance, Helia guessed that they were fairies considering the bright coloured clothes they were wearing, but he didn't dwell on them and returned his attention to his art.

"From my calculations, this is the best angle to watch the event," one of the girls informed the group, putting away the digital device that she had used to confirm her statement. Without looking up, Helia rolled his eyes. Why would she need a device to tell her something that she could had discovered with her own eyes? People relied on technology far too much these days.

Returning to his drawing, Helia tried to block out the group and in doing so failed to notice a pair of green eyes watching him.

* * *

While the others had been observing the view of the stadium, Flora's eyes had been drawn to the bleachers behind her for some reason.

Sitting there, his attention completely focus on the sketch pad in his hands, was a boy that she had never seen at Red Fountain before. He appeared to take no interest in the festivities going on around him, but he unintentionally caught Flora's attention quite firmly. Even though he was sitting down, Flora could tell that he was tall and much leaner that most boys that attended Red Fountain were. He also wasn't dressed in Red Fountain uniform and wore his hair longer than Codatorta normally approved of. She could see a few hints that he had a handsome face, but since he was so focused on his sketch pad, she really couldn't be sure of that, which only made her curiosity grow stronger.

"Hey, who's that?" Layla asked the boys, making no real effort to keep her voice from travelling. The rest of the Winx Club followed her eye line to see the stranger, and their curiosity grew as well.

"Is he a transfer student?" Stella asked.

"That's Helia," Brandon answered. Even though he and Sky had been assigned by Saladin to show Helia around Red Fountain, once the long haired teen had learnt the layout of the school – which really wasn't that hard to do since more than half of the school was closed off due to the damage caused during the Great Witch Invasion – they really hadn't had anything to do with Helia. The quiet art student preferred to keep to himself and since none of the guys could really think of anything to say to him, they tended to avoid Helia if they could. It wasn't that Helia wasn't a nice guy, it was just that they couldn't exactly see eye to eye with his beliefs of pacifism and they really didn't care for him viewing their beloved school as a breeding grown for warmongers and conflict, even if it was true to a degree.

"Helia is Saladin's grandson (3)," Timmy explained to the girls, whose eyes widened in both surprise and admiration.

"Is he going to be in the competition?" Flora asked, still staring at the boy.

"No, not him," Brandon told her. "He's not a hero. He goes to art school but Saladin's trying to convince him to transfer here."

"The problem is he's a pacifist and doesn't believe in battles," Timmy added.

"I want to meet him," Flora said in a slightly out of character boldness which didn't go unnoticed by Brandon and the other boys. She hadn't intended to say that out loud and when she realized her mistake, she flushed slightly but she quickly schooled her expression as Brandon made his way over to where Helia sat drawing.

"Helia!" Brandon greeted, but when Helia's cool, cobalt eyes looked up at him, Brandon felt the undesirable need to stand taller and speak correctly. There was just something about the maturity in his face that always made Brandon feel like that. It was the exact same as whenever he spoke with Saladin or with Sky's parents.

Helia tried not to look annoyed when he was distracted for the second time in as many minutes from his drawing. It wasn't that he didn't like Brandon and his friends; it was just that he really didn't feel like he fit in with them, especially whenever Riven was around. But when Helia looked up, he saw that not only was Brandon followed by the other boys, but a few Alfea fairies as well. They were all as lovely as all Alfea girls were rumoured to be, but there was one that caught Helia's eye immediately. She seemed rather shy and timid as she followed the rest of her friends over to where he sat. Her hair was long and seemed to be a shade between blonde and brown. Her green eyes, which occasionally glanced at him before dropping instantly back to the ground, were at an astounding green colour that Helia – an art student – couldn't name. Her flawless skin glowed a healthy bronze and the clothes she wore exposed her fantastic curves without making her appear too unclad like a couple of other girls that Helia had seen so far today.

She was indeed beautiful, and if Helia hadn't been so well trained in formality he might have been tempted to stare at her openly.

"These are my friends," Brandon continued. "Let me introduce you. This is Flora, and that's Tecna."

"And I'm Princess Stella of Solaria and I'm a great supported of art," Stella jumped in before Brandon could finish. Not that the squire minded. He really wasn't a fan of giving formal introductions. Flora, however, didn't look too pleased about the interruption.

Placing aside his paint brush, Helia got to his feet and bowed gracefully to the girls. He wasn't a stranger to meeting important people such of royalty given his grandfathers status, so he didn't feel self conscious bowing like someone who wasn't accustom to such formality might be. "I'm honoured to meet you."

"With all do respect, Helia, why are you painting with antiques?" the fairy that Brandon had introduced as Tecna asked. Helia instantly recognized her voice as the girl who had used technology to choose their seat and one glance at her clothing told Helia that she was from a digital realm.

"You can simulate any kind of art with a digi sketch from goblin cave painting to contemporary realism," a little digital pixie hovering not far from Tecna told him. "My cousin sells them. She (4) can get you a deal."

"Let me see your work," Stella ordered and Helia handed over his work without a protest. Any other person might have been offended by the way the fairies were carrying on, but Helia had the patience of a rock so he waited calmly as the princess flipped through his sketches. While she was doing that, Helia dared to steal a few glances at Flora, though not too openly. She smiled bashfully at him, and the transformation in her face from that simple act had all the beauty of a sunrise in Helia's opinion.

"Wow! You're perfect to do my royal portrait!" Stella told the art student as she passed his art book off to Flora. "I'll have my people call your people."

"You're brush strokes capture the doves movements so beautifully," Flora said and Helia was pleasantly surprised at how soothing and honest her voice sounded. "It's like its wings hug the clouds and the sky and the dove become one."

Helia couldn't suppress the first real smile in days spread across his face as Flora returned his note book back to him. Even if the drawings were in the early stages, what Flora had described had been what Helia was aiming for. "That's what I had in mind. I love that you got that."

Flora giggled at his words and returned his smile with a one of her own, which made Helia feel slightly light headed.

Brandon let a relieved grin spread over his face. Finally, it looked like Helia was opening up to someone. "Yeah, that's Flora for ya."

"It's really nice to meet you Helia," Flora said politely.

"The pleasures all mine," Helia assured her as he quickly became enchanted by the girl in front of him. Brandon quickly ran through the rest of the introductions including the names of all the pixies that hovered above their bonded fairy, but Helia didn't make much effort to try and learn them. He was just too captivated with the green eyed fairy in front of him.

"Where are you from, Helia?" Layla asked, making Helia try and focus on making conversation instead of watching the way Flora's light brown hair swayed slightly in the breeze.

"I've lived in the Realm of Vallisto all my life where I currently attend Ossacip School of Art," Helia answered formally and he couldn't deny the slight thrill he felt as Flora's eyes lit up in acknowledgement.

"I've heard of that school. They come to my home realm of Linphea to prepare for some big art show they put on each year," Flora said. "Some of the work they come out with is incredible."

"My class went to Linphea last year to prepare for that show and to complete our 'Humans and Nature' module," Helia told her. "And believe me, it's impossible not to create an incredible piece of art when you have such a beautiful landscape like Linphea's to inspire you."

"Oh," Flora giggled, blushing slight at is flattery of her home realm. Coyly, she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and Helia could honestly say that he had never seen a girl look more adorable. "Thank you."

"Vallisto," Musa repeated, her eye brows frowned as she tried to remember something that kept eluding her grasp. "Why does that sound so familiar?"

"Don't you remember?" Stella asked. "When Bloom first arrived at Alfea she wasn't on the enrolment list so we told everyone that her name was Princess Veranda of Vallisto since she was going to be home schooled that year instead of going to Alfea."

"Vallisto is the fourth world of Magix upper realm and is well known for its renowned artists, tradition and beaches which are very popular with tourists," Digit informed them, unaware that her description of the realm was very similar to the one Tecna had given on the first day she had met the other member of the Winx Club in freshmen year.

"I knew I knew it," Musa said, snapping her fingers.

"Guys," Riven, who had been watching the arena instead of getting involved with the meet and greet, suddenly interrupted. "They're getting ready to start the opening ceremony."

"We better go," Timmy said. "We've have to be on parade for this."

"We'll catch up with you later girls," Brandon waved. "You coming Helia?"

"I should go take my seat in the honours box. It was a pleasure to meet you ladies, and I hope to see you again soon," Helia bowed before heading off to the honours box where his grandfather had reserved a seat for him.

"Bye Helia," Flora waved before joining the rest of the Winx Club on the bleachers while the boys went of their own way. But Helia couldn't resist one final glance at her as he left and a small smile spread across his face for a reason he could quite identify.

* * *

After the Red Fountain student had filed into ranks and were placed standing at attention, Headmaster Saladin and Professor Codatorta make their way out into the centre of the stadium to begin the unveiling ceremony. The humming chatter of the crowd was replaced by cheering as everyone welcomed the two, eager to see what they had install for them.

"It's with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Red Fountain School for Heroics and Bravery," Codatorta greeted, his deep voice rolling over the crowd like a rumble of thunder. "To all who fought with us in the great witch invasion of 05 we say, thank you."

"You can just hear the gratitude seeping through his voice, huh?" Brandon asked the others, a sly grin on his face, but his smile quickly faded as Javelin shot a warning look at him. Somehow, the skinny professor always happened to be looking whenever Brandon started talking in ranks, and the squire had learnt from experience that it wasn't a good idea from pushing it once he was caught out. Though that didn't stop him from talking whenever he thought Javelin wasn't watching.

"And now to welcome you to the long awaited dedication ceremony of your new campus is our esteemed headmaster, Professor Saladin," Codatorta continued and the crowd burst into another round of loud cheering.

"I would like to thank the generous donators to our capital fund," Saladin started off, and then – never one to beat around the bush – he charged up his power and got the unveiling right on the way. "And now everyone, the moment you've all been waiting for!"

"What's going on?!" a freshmen asked in a slightly panicked voice as the ground started to tremble violently.

"Is this part of the show?!" Brandon shouted over the noise, as the Red Fountain students tried to maintain their balance without breaking too far out of rank. Around him, Brandon heard the sound of the remainder of the ruins collapsed, but the stadium held together as out of the ruins of the old school, the new Red Fountain campus emerged from the ground.

"My god," Riven, the only one who found his voice, gasped. Whatever they were expecting in the new campus, what they got wasn't what they were expecting . . . it was _better! _Hovering above the ground, the new school shone bright crimson in the morning sun as it floated higher into the sky. Water fell from waterfalls in four corners of the school, though it never hit the ground thanks to magic that recycled it back to the start.

Finally, Red Fountain reflected its name.

"No way," Timmy stammered, completely in awed by what he had seen.

"That is so awesome!" Sky grinned, staring up at his new school.

"How did they do that?" Brandon asked. "I mean, it just came right out of the ground."

"I don't think it did," Timmy corrected, checking his handheld computer. "I detect traces of a transportation spell as well as energy normally linked with illusion spells. The school would have been built elsewhere, and then transported here in time with Saladin's signal. All in all, I thought it was pretty impressive."

"Ladies and gentlemen, our new campus!" Saladin announced proudly, delighted that he had shocked his audience so. "The centre piece of our new campus is out state of the art stadium which we've upgraded with the hopes of hosting the 2012 magic games. It features five royalty boxes, an elixir bar and an invisible stage. It's a place for athletics and dramatics. It's a place where we'll create new memories for years to come."

"We now declare the stadium open!" Codatorta shouted as a group of dragons and their riders took to the sky.

* * *

With the help of a transport mat, the boys and the rest of the crowd were transported into the new school. Sky and the others were torn between getting ready for the competition that was coming up and exploring their new school. The Winx Club and their pixies had gone off on their own again to look around, promising that they'd meet up with the boys later on. While all the Red Fountain boys loved their old school, they couldn't deny the fact that it was a castle that had been built several centuries ago which meant that it could be drab and dreary at times. This new campus, however, had been updated to match the new age. Modern technology like elevators had been built into the school, a luxury that the old campus didn't have.

But they didn't have everything.

"They didn't listen to me," Brandon lamented with a heavy sigh.

"What do you mean, man?" Sky asked, concerned about his best friends behaviour.

"I suggested to Saladin that they put in giant slides like the ones they have at Cloud Tower, but he didn't listen to me (5)," Brandon sighed again, while his friends shot odd looks in his direction.

"You're an idiot," Riven informed him, but he was too busy checking out his schools new campus to extend on that any further.

"The new Red Fountain campus was designed by advance technical engineers for the Realm of Zenith which is where Tecna's from," Timmy told the rest of his squad after he had skim read the information package that had been instantly downloaded into his data base once he had entered the school. "Using the most up to date technological advancements, this new campus has been designed to be the ideal space for future heroes to learn the traditional and modern forms of combat. It's all very impressive. The class rooms and battle plateaus are situated on the upper levels while the lower levels have been assigned to student accommodation. The dorms seem to be more spacious than the older ones and there are more of them, which means that they can take on more students."

"It's awesome," Sky agreed.

"It would have been better if it had slides," Brandon muttered, but no one paid him any attention.

"Hey Sky!" someone called, and Sky looked back over his shoulder to see Bourne running down the corridors.

"Hey Bourne, what's up?" the prince asked as the orange hair student joined Sky's squad.

"First of all, how insane is this new campus, ay? I mean, it's off the scale," Bourne grinned widely.

"I know. It's totally awesome."

"You know what, for one year – just one year – I'd like to get a dollar for every time he says the word awesome," Riven said dryly to Timmy. "After just one year, I reckon I'd be set for life."

"Maybe," Timmy nodded, and Sky shot them both a filthy look.

Bourne, used to this kind of behaviour from this particular squad, continued on as if Riven hadn't said anything. "And secondly, they're starting the sword and shield events shortly so you guys better get ready since you and Riven are up pretty soon."

"Who's up now?" Timmy asked, bring up the running order for the days events on his hand held computer.

"Two freshmen's; Jeremy and Brad."

"Sky, you and Riven better get over there. There's only one more bout then you're up," Timmy told his friends. Riven nodded wordlessly, but Sky's blue eyes seemed a bit distracted.

"Don't worry. Timmy and I will go get the girls," Brandon said, reading his best friends mind exactly. "We won't let Bloom miss you kickin' Riven's butt."

"Hey!" Riven snapped, an insulted look on his face.

"Sorry, Riven's cute butt," Brandon corrected with a wide, mocking grin.

"Let's go," Timmy insisted, grapping hold of Brandon's arm and dragging the squire away while Sky quickly did the same with Riven before he could get his hands around Brandon's throat. Brandon laughed wickedly as soon as they were out of ear shot of their friends. "Do you have a death wish or something?"

"C'mon," Brandon laughed. "Did you see his face? Classic."

"If you say so. Now let's go find the girls."

They found Bloom, Flora, Stella and Tecna, along with their companion pixies, sitting on the grass under one of the trees that the new campus had on offer. Layla and Musa, however, were nowhere in sight. Of the girls that were there, Stella, Bloom and Flora were gossiping amongst themselves while Tecna was competing against Digit in one of their computer games.

"Don't mean to interrupt," Brandon said, treading carefully as he approached the girls. Bloom, Stella and Flora looked to be deep in gossip mood, and there was no telling how a girl might react when interrupted from such a session. "But Riven and Sky are up next."

"I'm up after Brandon," Timmy informed the girls, though he was secretly hoping to get Tecna's attention with that little comment. Her attention, however, remained fixed on the computer game she was playing with her pixie.

"So you're competing too?" Bloom asked, sounding a little surprised. Everyone knew that Timmy was more than competent with a sword, but he definitely didn't have the same level of passion for competition that his friends had.

"Timmy's in the squad ship parade," Brandon explained proudly. Timmy had put a lot of effort into their squad ship and Brandon knew that without that work, they wouldn't have nowhere near as good a ship as they did which would meant that Saladin let them go on more missions than most.

"I can't wait to see that!" Chatta cheered loudly, her face alight with more excitement than her tiny little body should allow. Grinning, the other girls got to their feet so that everyone could head over to the stadium together.

Everyone, that is, except Tecna.

"I'll meet you over there," the digital fairy informed them all before return her focus back to her game. "Okay Digit, five thousand and thirty-four."

Timmy watched her for a second longer and when she continued to ignore him, he glumly turned and followed after the others. The other girls continued to chatter and they walked, but Brandon held back to follow in beside his visually challenged friend.

"You aright man?" Brandon asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Timmy lied, forcing a smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Maybe because Tecna would prefer to play video games than hang out with you?" Brandon suggested.

Timmy shrugged. "If Tecna wants to play games with Digit, that's her choice. It's not like it matters to me."

"Whatever you say man," Brandon said, not sounding very convinced.

* * *

Sky shifted his weight and altered his grip on the hilt of his sword. Steadying his heart rate, Sky breathed deep and cleared his mind of all distractions. _Trust your instincts_. That's what Codatorta had told him. Trust your instincts and you won't make costly mistakes.

And when you're up against Riven, mistakes were something you couldn't afford to do.

As soon as Javelin, who was refereeing the match, gave the signal to start to bout, Sky ran forward to gain the advantage of an early attack. Riven stayed still, waiting for the prince to come close enough for the bout to really begin. Normally it was Riven who'd come charging into a fight with the first attack, but this time it was Sky who made the first lunge, but it was exactly what Riven was waiting for.

Jumping backwards, Riven watched as Sky's balance wavered when his sword didn't connect with anything and before the prince had a chance to regain his balance, the burgundy haired specialist countered by throwing a spherical device that he had brought from a shady individual in downtown Magix which Riven had altered in shop class. As it landed at Sky's feet, the ball exploded open and a smoke screen burst out, though not a poisonous one like was originally intended when Riven had brought it.

"What the . . ?" Sky coughed as the smoke flooded his senses. The smoke had a powerful sulphuric smell that left a foul taste in Sky's mouth and made his blue eyes water. He was well aware that bombs and other dangerous devices were allowed in the field of extreme fighting, but where the hell did Riven get half the stuff he used in this style of fighting? It didn't look legal, that's for sure.

Jumping out of the smoke screen, Sky blinked the water out of his eyes just as Riven lunged at him with his sabre. Blue and magenta lights flashed in the sunlight as the two blades parried off each other. Cool blue eyes met smouldering violet ones as the two boys strained against one another in an attempt to try and get the upper hand.

It was Riven who ultimately made the mistake. Fuelled by impatience, Riven recklessly lunged forward and when Sky easily sidestepped him, over shot his target and started falling forward. Before the ruthless youth could cover his mistake, Sky stuck out his leg and tripped his friend as he tried to stop himself from falling, resulting in Riven falling flat on his face.

"Good one, Sky!" the prince heard Bloom shout from the stands and he couldn't stop a triumphant grin spread across his face. Finally, she seemed to have forgotten about Professor Avalon and was paying him some attention.

"Good fight," Sky said to Riven in the spirit of good sportsmanship, but Riven would have none of it.

"Man you always win," Riven growled, getting to his feet. Riven was a sour loser at the worst of times, and being beaten by his greatest rival in front of a full crowd of people – which also happened to include Musa – was not something that improved his foul temper. "Everything comes easy to you. It's like it just falls into you lap."

Sky couldn't help but feel insulted by that comment. While it was true that he had had a much easier life than Riven, that no way reflected what happened on the battle field. That was pretty much all hard work and well practiced skill with only the slightest element of luck. "That is not true Riven and you know it."

Riven's violet eyes narrowed dangerously before he turned his back on Sky and walked off. "Sorry," he said through what sounded like clenched teeth. "Good fight."

"Huh?" Sky said to himself as he watched Riven walk out of the stadium. The prince had seen anger in his friends violet eyes before he had turned away, no doubt about that, as well as disappointment and frustration, but there was another emotion that swirled deep within those violet eyes that had always been the best source to judge Riven's emotions.

And it looked to Sky to be pain.

* * *

As soon as he was out of sight, hidden in the wings of the stadium, Riven slammed him back against one of the walls and started rubbing his tense leg, hissing through his teeth in agony.

When Riven had snagged his right leg on Sky's, the old wound he had received last year had tensed up, cramping itself till Riven was almost blind with pain. It had taken all his efforts to get to his feet and even more than that to exit the stadium without limping. Sky may have won the bout, but it would be a cold day in hell before Riven gave the blonde the satisfaction of knowing he had injured himself.

'Sky wouldn't get any satisfaction out of that,' Riven reminded himself as the cramp started to fade. 'Worse, he'd feel pity.'

"You look stressed," a throaty voice said suddenly, making Riven jump. He hadn't even noticed the girl that stood concealed by the shadows in the wings of the stadium, but she must have been there when he had arrived and had been watching him suffer.

"Yeah? What's it to ya?" Riven asked harshly, but the girls expression didn't change.

"Nothing. Just commenting," the girl told him coolly. Riven did not recognize her, but if he had to take a guess he'd say she was a fairy going by her girly plum coloured attire. Her dark bluish hair was pulled into a high bun, and behind a pair of yellow tinted glasses, her eyes were watching him like a hungry hawk eyeing off a fat rabbit out in the open. And it was making Riven feel a bit uneasy.

"Is there something you want?" Riven spat, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably as the girl continued to stare at him.

"Yes, but now's not the time," she told him before moving off down the corridor without a further explanation to who she was and what she was doing there. But as she glided past Riven, she slipped something into his hand. "Here. It'll help you relax."

Riven looked down at the half empty packet of cigarettes that now lay in his hand which was followed by an undeniable desire to light up, and when he looked up, the girl was gone.

* * *

Meanwhile, Brandon stepped into the centre of the stadium to where Jamie was waiting to face him. The squire instantly recognized him as the senior that was constantly teased for his behaviour with girlfriends and ex-girlfriends, but Brandon could also see from the practice slashes Jamie made with his spear that even though he didn't handle his women well, he knew how to handle his weapon.

"Hey don't worry dude," Sky assured his best friend, reading the panic that had seeped into Brandon's brown eyes. "He might be a senior but you can totally take him. I believe in you."

"Thanks buddy. I appreciate that," Brandon said, trying to sound confident.

"Just remember what we were discussing in Codatorta's class. Don't think too much. Just trust you instincts," Sky advised and as a large shadow fell across the entire stadium, both Eraklyains instincts told them that something wasn't right.

"Whoa! What's going on here?" Brandon asked as the sick feeling he always got whenever thing started go wrong settled in his stomach.

"Looks like we have a guest," Sky put lightly as a massive monster swooped in out of the sky. Red Fountain naturally taught all its students how to identify dangerous creatures and how to take them down, but this monster was like nothing the boys had ever seen. It was massive to say the least. Even without the power of flight it would have been able to see over the stadium walls and its wingspan was so large that it couldn't extend it all the way when it landed inside the stadium. Its body was covered in short, purple hair but its head was surrounded by a long, thick mane much like a lion. Its cat like face was equipped with fangs the size of phantom blades and burning fire like eyes. At the end of each of its limbs were sharp, claws like pinchers and at the end of its whip like tail was a mean looking little mouth that seemed to have a mind of its own.

With a snarl, the monster breathed deep and let out a bellowing roar that made the ears all that heard it to ache. And pain was quickly followed by panic.

"Ah!" Brandon and Sky screamed in unison. All around them, the stands were shouting and running in a panic. As fast as a whip, its tail lashed out at the stands, hitting and smashing the covering of a set of stairs to pieces.

"Hey!" Brandon gasped in outrage. "That's our new school! We just got that! Where does he get the nerve?"

"We've got to stop it before it destroys the entire school," Sky said, extending his shield to protect himself from the falling debris. Glancing at the stands where he had last seen Bloom and her friends, and when he saw an intense white light he knew they had transformed into their fairy form. Before the light had even died, six fairies took to the skies. Bloom started the attack by hurling a ball of right at the beast and Stella followed through with the power of her spectre, but neither of them was effective.

"That thing's powerful," Sky noted, collapsing his shield.

Floating down, Bloom agreed with him. "Yeah."

"Not to mention gross," Stella added.

"That's a Lio Dragerus," Flora noted. She had been the one out of her friends to excel at monster bio, and even though they had only lightly touched on the subject of the Lio Dragerus she had easily recognized the cat-like body and lively tail.

"Great, but I thought they were extinct," Stella said and she was right. The last Lio Dragerus was killed sixty-five years ago when their species were hunted down out of fear of attacks and out of desire for their valuable coats.

"What are we going to do?" Brandon asked in a small voice. Lio Dragerus's were legendary for their strength and the dangerous liking for the taste of human flesh.

"Junior Brigade!" Codatorta barked. "Position yourselves on the bleachers!"

On his queue, they all attack together with their guns, arrows and the magic of the fairies and the witches that had remained behind, but even with all their combined efforts, nothing happened to harm the beast.

"How do you fight a beast that big?" Brandon asked.

Sky looked over at the gates that lead to the dragon stables. "With another big beast."

* * *

Up in the stands, Timmy, although itching to be down there fighting alongside his friends, was doing the dutiful position of making sure that the crowd was lead out safely.

Dutiful, but boring.

"Form a single line," Timmy told the crowd. He was still fighting down the urge to leave the crowd on their own and join Brandon and Sky when one of the Red Fountain guard came running over to him. "What's up?"

"I'm to pass this alert to you immediately," the guard said, holing up his left hand. The hand itself was empty, but it was the way that he was holding it that caught Timmy's attention. The tips of his fingers were pointing upwards, but the palm was flat and on a downward incline. The guard wrist was arched and the ball of his fist was pointing upwards. It was a simply message, created to be subtle to avoid a panic, but it was one that spoke of a great threat to Red Fountain's valuables.

"Oh no," Timmy gasped, adjusting his glasses out of nervous habit. "Man, this is bad. This is really bad. We need to alert Codatorta right away." Hitting his intercom, Timmy radio Codatorta. "Red Dragon alert! Red Dragon alert!"

"I'm on it Timmy," Codatorta's gruff voice replied.

"You stay here and help get these people out of here," Timmy ordered the guard and before he had a chance to disagree, Timmy turned and bolted towards a stairway that could lead him down to the stadium floor.

* * *

Gripping his dragons' sides with his legs and tightening his hold on his reins, Brandon directed his green dragon that went by the name of Emerald towards where Sky was circling the monster. Effortlessly, Emerald rolled his body and began a fast descent that made Brandon's stomach churn as the wind rush pass his ears, but the squire simply leaned back in his saddle like he had been taught in freshmen dragon riding class and held steady untill his dragon swooped in along side Sky's dragon.

"Codatorta just radioed. Someone's broken into the school and are moving in on the schools valuables," Brandon said. "You and Bloom are now in charge."

"What?" Sky gasped pulling Cerulean out of the range of the monsters attacks so he could digest this new information. "Are you for real?"

"Well, Bloom did save the entire universe last year with the Army of Decay. A thing like this should be like a walk in the park for her," Brandon said. "And they need a Red Fountain student in charge as well."

"But why me as that Red Fountain student in charge? Wouldn't a senior be a more logical choice?"

"Yeah, but there are any seniors here that are dating the most powerful girl in Magix?"

"Good point. Now let's take this thing down!"

"You got it," Brandon grinned, digging his heels into Emeralds scaly side and the two dragons spiralled back into the fight. Sky's dragon barely escaped the jaws of the monster, but Cerulean was as agile as he was fast so the only harm Sky suffered from was a case of the shakes.

"There's got to be a way to take this thing down," Sky hissed through gritted teeth as the Lio Dragerus remained unaffected as one of Red Fountain Red Wing fighter jets joined the fight.

"Flora's gonna try and distract it so that we can have a chance to attack it," Brandon reported. "Maybe that'll give us the advantage we need."

"I don't know. Sounds dangerous," Sky worried. He watched as Flora fluttered over to the monster, ready to fire a ball of energy at the Lio Dragerus so that everyone could attack it from the other side when it turned to stop her. But even if she was an A student in monster bio, she wasn't aware that the monsters had the ability to tell what was going on behind it thanks to its snapping tail. Despite the fact that it didn't have eyes, the tail could sense what was happening and relayed a message to its head. Before Flora had even started to gather her win, the monster spun around, spitting out a foul, brownish green sludge right at her. The sludge covered her body and stuck to her wings, making her struggle to keep in the air. But worst of all, it hit her right in the eyes so she was completely unable to see an attack let alone be able to block it successfully. "It got her!"

"No! That's what it does right before it eats you!" Bloom cried, recalling the only bit of information she could remember about Lio Dragerus from monster bio. "It spits on you to make you more digestible."

"Get away from her!" Layla shouted at the monster, but it paid no attention to her.

"Flora!" Tecna warned. "Get down!"

Flora, however, couldn't hear her since some of the sludge had gotten into her ears. Wiping her eyes, the flower fairy was completely unaware of the doom that was closing in on her. "I can't see."

"Flora!" Bloom screamed. The monster was tensing itself up to lung at the gooed fairy like a cat and no one was close enough to save her since they had all positioned themselves on the other side of the monster. Flora had finally been able to clear the sludge from her eyes, but as the Lio Dragerus launched itself at her, panic gripped her mind, driving out the though of protecting herself. All she could do was scream.

"_Ah!"_

* * *

Helia had ignored the Red Fountain sentries' commands to evacuate the stadium and had remained in an out of the way place in the stands so he could watch. He had no interest in the fighting, but he couldn't pass up an opportunity to study the graceful and deadly aerial movements of a fully grown Lio Dragerus. The universe had lost that entire species thanks to ignorance and unjustified human fears, so even through Helia knew that he was putting himself at risk, he couldn't leave.

The Lio Dragerus was really an amazing creature when you thought about it, Helia realized. Despite the fact that they hunted in the warm, giant rainforest of Tasmedia and the hot, open plain that existed alongside it, they made their dens in the windswept mountain that surrounded the massive trees, so they had to be able to tolerate to three different climates and environment. For countless years, the Lio Dragerus had lived peacefully in the mountains, on the plains and amongst the trees, until the first people moved into the area. A hundred years later, the very last Lio Dragerus was killed and the universe lost one of its most unique creatures.

Helia watched as the dragons and jets swooped around the monster, and despite the fact that the Lio Dragerus was holding in own against the attacks, Helia couldn't help but pity the monster. It was the only one of its kind, and it had been sent here to fight these unknown enemies in a realm far from its home.

"Poor thing must be so lonely," Helia sighed to himself as a strong wave of pity welled up inside of him, but he knew that Red Fountain and its students weren't going to let their new campus be destroyed on the day of its unveiling. Unable to watch, Helia turned his back on the battle and headed for the stairs just as the monster turned to spit on the pink fairy that had tried to sneak up behind it.

Helia had just put his foot down on the third step with the sound of someone screaming reached his ears, and the name that was called was enough to make him spin on the spot and run back to where he had been standing seconds before.

"Flora!"

Suddenly, Helia lost all pity he had for the monster.

"_Ah!"_

* * *

Flora tensed as the Lio Dragerus closed in on her. The rest of the Winx Club and the Red Fountain Specialists were all too far away to help her and fear blinded her so she didn't even think of erecting a shield let alone gather the power to do so. The Lio Dragerus was now so close that she could smell the foul, bloody breath of the meat eater and there was no way of stopping it.

All Flora could do was tense and wait for her doom.

But it never came. When the Lio Dragerus' long fangs were just a few feet from closing down onto the pink clad fairy, the monsters advance came to a jerking halt as several golden strings latched onto its body, leashing it and preventing it attacking its prey.

Brandon blinked at the sudden stoppage. "How did that happen?"

Sky, however, had looked to where the strings had come from and knew the answer. "Look. It seems like we have a new hero."

"And who's that?"

"He's over there!" Flora pointed, her voice sounding very collected and unconcerned for someone who had almost been eaten alive by a seemingly extinct monster. "Helia."

"Helia?" Brandon repeated in disbelief. "How can an art student do that?"

"He is Saladin's grandson so heroics must be in his blood," Sky suggested, but Brandon didn't look convinced. Here was a guy who objected to fighting in all its forms and yet he could contain a beast that the students of Red Fountain, Alfea and Cloud Tower couldn't take down on his own? That guy either had an incredible amount of good luck or he had had weapons training very advanced level before.

Helia was well aware that all the Red Fountain boys were staring at him in disbelief and shock, but he didn't care. He had never allowed the pressure of social status get to him and he wasn't about to start worrying about it now. Besides, he had more important things on his mind. "Are you okay, Flora?"

"I . . ." Flora stammered bashfully. She tried to respond to his question, but she just couldn't get her mind to focus, and this time it had nothing to do with fear. "Er . . ."

Sky couldn't help but laugh at the shy and normally composed fairy's reaction at her rescue. "She's alright."

A warm smile spread across his face as he watched the flower fairy blush brightly. He had never seen anything look more adorable. Still smiling, Helia retracted his laser strings and released the monster. He had always been a strong supporter of catch and release whenever his father had taken him fishing. However, there were others that didn't agree with his line of thinking.

"Hey! Why did he let it go?" Bloom gasped. The newly freed Lio Dragerus reared up and tried to hit dragons with its massive fists, but the dragons quickly flew out of harms way even before their riders commanded them too.

"Whoa!" Brandon exclaimed as he tried to calm a terrified Emerald. "What the hell was that? He finally stops that thing and then he lets it lose again! That guy I don't get!"

"I don't think he did that to help us," Sky said, though he could see that there were others – namely Stella and Tecna – who were just as annoyed by Helia's actions as Brandon was. "C'mon. We need to come up with plan if we're ever going to stop this thing."

"Look! Timmy's down there!" Brandon pointed down to the stadium floor. "Maybe he can think of something."

"Let's go," Sky nodded, swinging Cerulean around and directing him towards his friend.

"This thing's going to destroy the whole stadium if we don't stop it soon," Timmy said as soon as his friends landed beside him.

"Yeah, and I got a feeling it's not going to stop there," Brandon grumbled, sliding down out of his saddle. As soon as his feet were on the ground, Emerald reared up, ripping the reins out of the squires hands and bolted. Cerulean followed after him.

"They're spooked," Sky noted glumly. Dragons might be fearsome fighters, but the Lio Dragerus completely dwarfed them and dragons weren't used to not being able to defeat an enemy. "But then again, aren't we all?"

"Don't suppose this is part of the opening ceremony?" Riven asked calmly, strolling over to his friends as if nothing extraordinary was going on.

"Where have you been?" Timmy asked.

"Getting stupid people who don't understand the meaning of the word 'evacuate' out of the stadium like you were doing."

"Are you limping?" Brandon asked Riven. He had always been able to pick up on little things about Riven that the others overlooked. Riven hated it and when Brandon saw his friends violet eyes darken, he knew that this was just like those other times.

"No," Riven snapped and he was spared of being interrogated further when the Winx Club flew down to where they were standing, protected by a fallen piece of rubble.

"That thing does not let up," Musa sighed deeply, sinking down out of the sky.

"We've got to stop it or you guys aren't going to have a school again," Stella told them.

"We don't need to be reminded," Riven said stiffly.

"We should use Helia's strategy and try to get the monster tied down," Sky suggested, moving past another possible argument between Riven and the princess.

"We'll need the entire archery battalion," Bloom said. "Stella and I can co-ordinate it."

"We'll get the dragons," Riven added.

"Good idea," Sky agreed. He and Brandon might be two excellent dragon wranglers, but they were only two. Also, Riven was one brilliant dragon wrangler as well and Timmy of course excelled at everything. "We'll use them to get as close as possible so we can spot its point of vulnerability. Tecna can direct the positioning."

Riven suddenly got right up in Sky's face, and everyone instantly assumed he was picking a fight with his rival. "Once that thing's restrained we can use the Four Swords Blast. You know the one you showed me."

The Winx Club may have been nervous about the way Riven was addressing the prince, but Sky got it. He might not pickup on as many things as Brandon, but he knew how to speak Riven to some degree. Riven wasn't only making a suggestion to save their school, this was his way of apologizing for being a jerk earlier. A wide grin spread across Sky's face, and Riven returned it with a sly one of his own. "That's great idea Riven. Let's do it."

* * *

Dragons were no longer the intelligent creatures they were of legend. The very first dragons, who had descended from the Great Dragon itself, had been strong, powerful and extremely smart to the point where some reports told of dragons actually speaking the human language. But after millenniums of breeding, the dragons had gotten smaller in size and dumber in the mind. But even without their legendary intelligence, the Red Fountain mustang dragons had learnt that they were no match for the Lio Dragerus and they boys were having a horrible time trying to get them out of their stables.

"Saffron!" Timmy scolded, picking himself up from the ground where he had fallen when the dragon had head butted him. It wasn't a hard hit, but it was enough to throw him off his feet.

"They're totally freaked," Brandon sighed, giving up on his efforts to drag Emerald out of the stables by his reins. "The only way we're going to get them out of here is with a tow truck."

"Oh come on! Just grab one and let's go already," Riven ordered, going to grab the reins of a black winged dragon by the name of Jet. But before he could even touch the leather straps, a flash of white and red accompanied by a warning growl shot over to Jet and nipped him sharply on the neck. With a whelp, Jet scurried off, leaving only one dragon behind. "Rouge!"

Rouge was not like normal dragons. Last year, the red winged mare had been driven to insanity when Riven had tried to control her mind and make her attack Sky's dragon against her will. Saladin had returned her sanity after the defeat of the Trix, but she wasn't the same dragon she had been at the start of the year. Along with her sanity, Rouge seemed to have obtained new characteristics that could almost be described as human. She had suddenly become rather vain – not an uncommon characteristic in dragons, but she did take it to new levels such as being caught admiring her reflection in her water trough– and her ambition had excelled into something one might even describe as dangerous. Despite being a young mare who had only recently reached a mature breeding age, Rouge had forced her way violently through the ranks to become the dominant female dragon at Red Fountain and even that wasn't enough. She enjoyed tormenting the males just as much as she liked bossing the females around which was a bit of an oddity since male and female dragons usually kept their fighting amongst their own genders. She seemed to have obtained a certain level of intelligence as well which reflected in her reptilian eyes so you could almost read her mind and understand what point she was trying to get across.

But perhaps the oddest new characteristic she had picked up since the end of last year was that she had developed an incredible attachment to Riven. She would not let him even get near another dragon and would turn rather kittenish around him, which Riven found to be a tad embarrassing but his friends found to be hilarious.

"Aw, isn't that cute," Brandon grinned widely.

"Alright, stop it," Riven commanded as Rouge snuggled her head up against him. "Can we go already?"

"And break up this tender moment?"

"That's enough. Let's just try and get the other dragons," Sky said, trying to focus his friends. Almost as if she understood what the prince was staying, Rouge shot a sharp look and a warning growl in Cerulean, Emerald and Saffron's direction and slammed her tail against the stable stalls with such force that it caused the rafters to shutter. Instantly, the three male dragons were by her side, awaiting their riders. "Wow."

"I don't think I've ever seen a dragon do that," Timmy noted, watching Rouge who had swollen up pride at the way she control the other dragons. She had also become oddly coy and the strangeness continued as she reached over and nipped Cerulean on the neck in a wickedly playful manner. The blue dragon shot her an irritated look and then ignored her. "Weird."

"Guys, our schools being attacked so can we do this later?" Sky asked, swinging into his saddle. The others followed suit and made their way out into the open air so that their dragons could take flight. "Alright guys, lets move in close."

Letting out a loud battle crew, the four riders swooped in to distract the Lio Dragerus while Bloom and the other members of the Winx Club moved the archery battalion into position around the monster so they could attack and try to restrain it. Stella, Musa, Flora and Layla all oversaw a quarter of the archers each, while Bloom stayed with Tecna as she searched for the best way to attack the monster.

"Okay, Sky, clear a radius of twenty feet around the monster," Tecna ordered over the intercom.

"You heard her!" Sky shouted to the others as he pulled on Cerulean's reins, and the four dragons flew away just as the Red Fountain archery battalion fired their laser string arrows. Golden, delicate looking threads shot through the air and latched themselves to the monsters limbs and body, holding the beast in place. But no matter how good a hold they had on it, the Lio Dragerus struggled against its bonds and the archers were losing their grip.

"He's about to break free!" Brandon warned as he saw an entire squad of specialists get ripped off their feet after the monster made a sudden jerk in its efforts to get free.

"Hold on tight guys!" Bloom shouted in encouragement, but still the monster struggled and there was only so much they could do against something that powerful.

"He's too strong!"

"He's gonna break free!" Flora gasped as the laser strings started to snap under the strain of the monster. Gathering her winx, the flower fairy focused her magic into the ground and called upon the natural force that existed in the soil and added it to her own. "Ivy web, grow and spread."

The compacted dirt floor of the stadium broke as think, powerful vines emerged out of the ground and shot up to wrap themselves around the monsters, holding it firmly in place and giving the specialists the hand they need.

"Now all we need to know is where the point of vulnerability is," Timmy said more to himself than anyone else as he gripped Saffron's reins tightly. And at that moment, Tecna found it.

"Hey guys! Get ready!" Bloom ordered over the intercom.

"Swords in!" Sky commanded and the four riders moved their dragons closer to one another. "Where are we shooting, Tec?"

"Aim for the exact centre of the monsters chest just below where its mane ends. That's where a lot of its power seems to be coming from. If you attack it there, it should be enough to cripple it," Tecna explained.

"Should?" Riven repeated sceptically.

"Move now!" Tecna commanded sharply. This was no time for hesitation.

"We gotcha!" Timmy assured her, crossing his golden phantom blade with Sky, Brandon and Riven. As he focused his mental energy into his blade, Timmy felt some of his physical energy start to drain as well. But he kept pouring his energy into the blade untill it changed to a deeper shade of gold than it usually was and he could see that the same thing was happening to his friends blades as well.

Finally, Sky gave the command. "Fire guys!"

With a flash, the four swords turned white hot and an instant later, a bright, white light shot from the blades right at the monsters chest. The four boys slumped in their saddles in exhaustion, but the danger wasn't over yet. The Lio Dragerus let out a deafening roar of pain and anger as the blast sunk deeper into its chest, and it continued to scream and thrash as its body began to flash golden in colour.

"Retreat! Now!" Sky ordered and neither the other boys nor their dragons need to be told twice. With very little urging, the four dragons plummeted down towards the ground while at the same time trying to get as much distance between them and the flashing Lio Dragerus as possible. As soon as their clawed feet touched the ground, the dragons all dropped down onto their bellies and lifted their wings up to shield their body and the riders from danger. Their long tails wrapped itself around them and they all ducked their heads under one wing for protection.

Seconds later, the Lio Dragerus exploded into a large flash of light and a massive dust storm blew up from the blast.

"Alright! We got it!" Bloom cheered, but when the dust cleared, no remains or any real evidence that the monster was even there could be found.

* * *

"What do you mean they don't think that was a real Lio Dragerus?" Stella asked as she stood in the shade of one of Red Fountains new trees with her hands on her hips. "We all saw it, didn't we? That was clearly a Lio Dragerus! I've seen pictures of them!"

"It did look like a Lio Dragerus," Timmy agreed. "But the largest Lio Dragerus ever recorded was only the size of a dragon. That thing was massively oversize. It couldn't have been a real Lio Dragerus."

"Then what was it?" Bloom asked.

Timmy shrugged. "No one can really know for sure, but a few people said they saw a small, bat like creature flying away from the campus just after the explosion. It's possible that someone spelled the bat into appearing like a Lio Dragerus and to attack us. There are accounts of stuff like that happening through history."

"Yeah, but it would take an incredible amount of magic to swell something to the size of the monster that attacked us today," Musa pointed out. "I doubt even Ms. F has that kind of power."

"Well, someone attack us today and I think it was a diversion and whatever they want, they didn't get it," Tecna noted. "Timmy, may I have a look at that map you have of Red Fountain's new campus. I'd like to over look the security layout."

"Sure thing," Timmy said, pulling out a folded piece of paper. When opened, the map was rather large in size and showed the entire layout for the new school. The two computer geeks proceeded to pour over the map while Musa, Layla and Brandon all listened to Stella go on about how excellently she had commanded the Red Fountain freshmen archery battalion. Flora was sitting under a tree alone, content with her own thoughts, as was Riven who leaned against his own tree a little further away from the group.

"We did good today," Sky said to Bloom as the two of them sat under a tree not far from the others. It was the first time they had had alone all day, though it still wasn't as alone as he would have liked it.

"Yeah, good thing you learnt about that Four Swords Blast over the summer," Bloom grinned. "What you did today was incredible."

"It's actually called the Four Swordsmen Blast but you know how Riven never listens (6). It worked a lot better than I expected it too, though it's a lot more draining than I anticipated as well."

"Is that hero's brew kicking in yet?"

"Yeah, I feel heaps better than I did before. Thanks for suggesting it."

"I just remembered how much it helped me after we got in that big fight with the witches in Downtown Magix last year. I figured it would work on you too," Bloom shrugged.

"It sure did," Sky smiled at her, giving her hand a squeeze and Bloom smiled back at him coyly. Slowly, so not to spook her, Sky leant forward to press his lips lighting to hers. Bloom responded by leaning into the kiss, but before the pair could deepen it any further, a shadow fell across them which made them jump and pull back. Sky glared at the individual who dared to interrupt their kiss and his irritation doubled when he saw that the person standing in front of them was a complete stranger. He was a tall man, dressed in a white suit with long, dark hair that had the slightest trace of grey in it. Sky was fairly sure that he hadn't met this man before, but at the same time he got the nagging feeling that he had.

"Sorry to interrupt," the man apologized without the slightest trace of embarrassment. "But I was wondering if I might be able to have a quick word with you alone, Bloom."

"Sure thing, Professor Avalon," Bloom smiled, jumping to her feet and following after the man that Sky now recognized as the paladin that had saved them in Shadow Haunt and Alfea's new professor that Bloom had become so enthralled with. "I'll be right back, Sky."

Fuming with jealousy, Sky stayed where he was and, although he knew it was bad manners, he eavesdropped in on Bloom's conversation with her professor.

"Firstly, I would like to commend you on the excellent leadership you displayed today while trying to contain that monster," Avalon congratulated. "I've seen seasoned big game hunters get taken down by monsters like that, so what you achieved today was truly remarkable."

"Thank you professor," Bloom blushed bashfully. "But I did have some help from the others."

A wave a red hot anger welled up inside of the prince. Some help? He went from being incredible to just offering her some help?

"So I heard," Avalon said in what Sky thought sounded like a very offhanded tone of voice. "And I wish I had been there to help you. I was taking a tour and by the time I got back to the stadium the fight was over."

"You could have destroyed that monster in a second," Bloom gushed.

"Yeah right," Sky _huff_ed as he struggled to keep his anger in check. He was so irritated that he didn't even notice a paper airplane swoop past his face before landing in Flora's lap. Curiously, Flora unfolded the paper plane to discover a breathtaking sketch of herself drawn on it.

And there was only one person in the Realm of Magix that she knew could draw that well.

* * *

The after party the Red Fountain put on to celebrate the unveiling of their new campus was like nothing the three schools in the Realm of Magix had ever seen before. Alfea and Cloud Tower had no real venue to hold a large scale party, and although the old Red Fountain had a stadium, it did not have the right equipment for them to use modern entertainment, and since it had been listed as a historical building, the school hadn't been able to do anything to change that.

However, along with the new campus, Red Fountain had gotten a state of the art stadium that was, as Saladin had said, 'a place for athletics and dramatics'. The whole stadium had been decked out with advanced lighting and sound equipment that Timmy, Tecna and even Musa drooled over. Red Fountain made good use of their new equipment by blaring out the music mixed by DJ Mirage and illuminated the entire stadium with flashing, colourful disco lights in order to transform the school into what could easily be mistaken as one of the most popular night clubs they had on offer in Magix.

The stadium was packed with students from all three schools who were either sweating it out on the crowded dance floor or standing around shouting loudly to one another in order to be heard over the pounding music. Since it was on school grounds, alcohol had been strictly forbidden but there were a number of students who ignored that rule, though they did hide that fact that they were doing so very well. Brandon and Stella were once again inseparable and made quite an impression on the dance floor with their rumba. Musa, Layla and Bloom had spent practically the entire night on the dance floor. Timmy and Tecna were quite happy to stand back and watch them, as did Sky, who was still sulking about Avalon, and Riven, who was trying to avoid Musa so that she couldn't ask him to dance with her.

Flora had started the night hanging out with and talking with Tecna and the boys before being dragged onto the dance floor by Bloom. And now, hot and sweaty from all the dancing she had done, Flora was in desperate need of some fresh air. Accompanied by Chatta, Flora stepped out of the pounding stadium and released a deep sigh of relief as the cool night air hit her hot, sweaty skin.

"It's nice out here," she smiled, closing her eyes and letting her body cool itself.

"Come on, Flora! Let's get back in there!" Chatta shouted cheerfully. "I've just thought of a cheer that could make a great dance and I can't wait to show the others!"

"In a minute, Chatta," Flora said softly, her eyes still closed. "It's so much cooler out her. It's lovely."

"And quieter too," a soft voice added from somewhere behind her, making Flora jump and snap her eyes open. Spinning around, she saw, sitting on a bench alongside the walls of the stadium was Helia. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"No, it's quite alright," Flora assured him. "I just wasn't aware than anyone else was out here, that's all."

Despite all the skills of mastering words that came with him being a poet, Helia could not focus himself enough to put together a sentence that would start of a conversation with the girl. Instead, all he could do was stare openly at the beautiful fairy in front of him. Her sweaty body glistened in the moonlight, highlighting her curves despite the darkness. Her long, brown hair was damp and dishevelled but Helia thought it looked batter than anything a hair stylist could create. She was still breathing heavily from the dancing and the fright and when that was combined with her sweaty skin and wild hair, it was enough to make Helia's mouth go dry and cause his pulse to quicken.

She really was stunning.

Chatta made some comment about how she was going to go find Lockette for secret pixie business and flew off, leaving the two teenagers alone. But if either of them happened to look around the corner, they would have found a tiny, gold pixie with long pigtails eavesdropping in on their conversation.

"Thank you," Flora blurted out suddenly in a strong voice, but when Helia locked his cobalt eyes on her stunning emerald ones, her cheeks flushed and she became bashful and nervous. "I mean, for earlier . . . you know . . . with the monster."

"You're welcome," Helia replied politely. "I didn't approve of the way everyone was trying to destroy the beast, but when it tried to attack you, I couldn't sit idly by."

"Well, I for one am glad you didn't," Flora smiled warmly which made Helia's stomach suddenly start to feel funny. "And thank you very much as well for the drawing you gave me. You're a very talented artist."

"That's kind of you to say so, but it's rather easy when you have such a breathtaking subject to sketch," Helia told her. He saw her cheeks flush at his words and he suddenly felt slightly nervous that he had spoken his mind too openly too soon. He never had this feeling when he had spoken with other girls in the past, he noted to himself, but then again he had never met a girl quite as enchanting as Flora before.

Flora nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled shyly at Helia. There was no denying that she thought he was cute and whenever he smiled at her she felt her insides go all gooey in a way that no other boy had made her feel before, but there was a part of her mind that kept reminding her that he was no doubt going to leave Red Fountain and go back to his art school now that the new campus had been unveiled. But then again, she couldn't help but hope that maybe he would change his mind. "So, what do you think of Red Fountain?"

"I like the new campus," Helia said. "I can't imagine the amount of effort that would have gone into making this in just one summer. It's very elegant now and I love the way the architects have balanced out the militaristic feel of the school with the natural flows of water and trees."

"I got that impression as well," Flora agreed. "Would you ever think of transferring here?"

If anyone had asked him that question that morning, Helia would have been able to answer no without any hesitation, but now, as he sat with such an astoundingly beautiful fairy in front of him, Helia felt torn between a decision. Finally, he figured to answer Flora's question honestly.

"I'm starting to consider it."

* * *

_(1) I never could work out what the boys did to take down the Lio Dragerus, but I couldn't exactly just have to guys fly out into the stadium on their dragons, put their swords together and then fly away. That would just be stupid, which is why I came up the Four Swordsmen Blast bull _

_(2) I knew a guy who did this. What a pansy _

_(3) The 4kids version actually has Helia as Saladin's nephew, but I'm changing it to grandfather is Saladin looks old enough to be it _

_(4) The original line Digit says here is "My cousin sells them. He can get you a deal" but aren't all pixies supposed to be girls? Hmm. Continuity issues _

_(5) Band of Brothers Chapter Twenty-Two 'Mission to Cloud Tower' _

_(6) I wrote that whole first part of this chapter before I realised I was calling it the Four Swordsmen Blast instead of the Four Swords Blast. Instead of changing it, I just had Riven mispronounce it instead._

_Another major thing that I just bulled my way through was the unveiling of the Red Fountain new campus. It just seemed to come out of the ground, but all the people still stayed in the old stadium. What the hell? I also can't work out how they get into the school if they don't have a ship or whatever. There's a lot of holes in this cartoon I've come to realise. _

_Well anyways, that's another long chapter out of the way and since __**Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur **__(Anything said in Latin sounds profound), I leave you with this insightful advice:_

_**  
"Homo sapiens non urinat in ventum" **_

_(A wise man doesn't piss into the wind)_


	9. The Angel of Doom

_Okay, this is a nice, short little chapter since Chapter Eight was mammoth and Chapter Ten's gonna be epic. I don't mind writing long chapters, but sometimes it's nice to have a change. And thanks to all those who reviewed, especially angelgrl31392 who figured out what Stella was saying in the previous chapter. There's still no word on what the hell Sky was saying, but that's not that important.  
_

_Anyways, there's a bit of Brandon and Stella fluff in this one, so Stella and Brandon fan this one's for you._

* * *

**Chapter Nine – The Angel of Doom**

"Should I be concerned about Bloom and Avalon?" Sky asked one afternoon, giving up on concentrating on his homework so he could voice the thought that had been troubling him ever since the unveiling of Red Fountain's new campus a few days ago. "I mean, I know she thinks he's handsome and she has dogged me a few times to talk to him or to do work on her papers for his class and whatever, but it's nothing I should be worried about, right?"

"I don't think you need to be," Timmy assured his friend. "So she may have a little crush on her teacher? Big deal. Nothing will ever come of it, that's why it's a crush."

"Yeah, but just because it's a crush doesn't mean nothing will come of it," Sky reminded Timmy. "I mean, look at Brandon and Stella. That started out as a crush and now look at the way they are around each other."

"What?" Riven asked from his place lounging on Brandon's bed while the two of them shared out their homework. "Nauseating? Repulsive? Disgusting?"

"No, in love," Brandon said with a dreamy look on his face that he knew would turn the stomach of the burgundy haired specialist sitting beside him.

"Eww."

"Guys, can we please try to focus on me here?" Sky begged his friends.

"Sky, you're being paranoid again," Brandon pointed out. "Even if Bloom does have a bit of a crush on Avalon, absolutely nothing is going to happen between them for three reasons. One, he's a paladin which means he's probably a lot older than he looks. He's might even be old enough to be great, great grandfather. Two, he's her teacher and she's his student. There are laws preventing it from going beyond that."

"Which not everyone abides to," Riven commented dryly.

"And three," Brandon continued on as if Riven hadn't said anything, "Bloom, believe it or not, is totally into you, man. In fact, you should totally make it official and ask her to be your girlfriend because I'm so positive that she'll say yes that I'm willing to walk to each end of the corridor outside this room naked is she says no."

"No one wants to see that," Riven assured the squire who retaliated by poking his tongue out at his friend. "Oh that's mature."

"I guess you're right," Sky said and when he saw the bewildered looks of his friends, he quickly added, "About Bloom and Avalon. I mean, a person will usually get a crush on one of the teachers at one point during their schooling career, but normally nothing ever comes of it. (1)"

"It's just a regular part of being a student," Timmy nodded.

"Have you guys ever had a crush on a teacher?"

"Um, no," Timmy lied with a nervous cough and flushing slightly. Brandon and Riven, however, both slipped into a dreamy, distant expression as they recalled the teacher that had been the cause of several of their fantasies.

"Miss Alex," they both answered in unison.

"Oh, how could I forget her?" Sky asked himself, remembering the young, blonde student teacher that had come to Red Fountain during their freshmen year to teach a module to the school on the proper techniques of fighting with bo staffs and traditional bow and arrows. In one class, she was able to conjure up more impure and inappropriate thoughts in the minds of the male adolescence in her class than any other teacher could do in an entire year, or even in ten years when it came to her classes on the correct way to handle ones staff. "I don't think there was a single student at this school who didn't have a crush on her."

"Not to mention a few of the staff members as well," Brandon added. "She was fine."

"Damn fine," Riven agreed.

"Apparently she hooked up with one of the seniors that year during prom."

"Nah-uh. Not even."

"Yes even. She got a bit tipsy and started flirting with the seniors."

"Says who?"

"Says Sally," Brandon said, referring to the biggest gossip and biggest girl in their class.

"Is there a piece of gossip that that boy doesn't know?" Timmy asked.

"None that I've heard. Between him and Jared, there is no way we can miss even the slightest bit of news that goes on in this place."

Timmy wouldn't have minded sitting around remembering the young lady that had been the star of many of his sexual fantasies during freshmen year, but his cell phone suddenly went off and when he saw who it was on his caller ID, all thoughts of Miss Alex left his mind. "Hey Tecna. How's it going?"

"Hi Timmy," Tecna greeted on the other end of the line. "Um, I was wondering if I could ask a massive favour of you; would you be able to give me a lift to Cloud Tower this afternoon? I need to speak to Miss Griffin."

"Um, sure. That's fine. Can I ask why you need to speak with Miss Griffin?" Timmy asked.

"I'll explain it when you get here since it's kinda complicated."

"Oh, okay. I'll see you in a little bit," Timmy told her before hanging up. "I'm gonna go see Tecna so I'll see you guys in a bit."

"Booty call?" Brandon asked.

"You really do have a rather perverted mind, you know?"

"Yeah," Brandon grinned widely. "It's never boring but."

* * *

Tecna was waiting at the gates of Alfea with Digit, Zing and Livy the Pixie of Messages when Timmy arrived on his levi bike. The digital fairy had a serious look on her face that also seemed to be rather troubled, an expression that Timmy hadn't seen since the Trix tried to overrun the Realm of Magix with the Army of Decay. "Hi Tecna. Is anything wrong?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Tecna said in a hushed voice, looking over her shoulder to make sure they weren't overheard. "I don't particularly trust Professor Avalon and suspect that he might be dangerous."

"How do you mean?"

"Well firstly, he seemed to be going to considerable efforts to make everyone at Alfea trust him, particularly Bloom. I did a little bit of research and realised that Professor Avalon has many similarities to a being called the Angel of Doom who goes to realms, gains their trust and then destroys them when they're unprepared."

"The Angel of Doom?" Timmy repeated. The name sounded very familiar to him and it took a few seconds before it clicked. "Wasn't the Realm of Frost destroyed by something called the Angel of Doom?"

"Yes, and Avalon has admitted that he used to teach in the Realm of Frost. And then, while I was trailing Avalon to see if he was up to no good, Digit and I saw him in two places at once."

"That's odd. But why do you want to see Miss Griffin?"

"So I can find out more on this Angel of Doom. Apparently he always goes after the most powerful individuals in the realms he conquers, which has me worried about Bloom," Tecna confessed.

"Well then let's go to Cloud Tower," Timmy said, handing her a helmet. "I'm sure Miss Griffin will know what's going on."

Tecna, holding the three pixies up to her chest, wasted no time in climbing on the back of Timmy's bike. Timmy felt a small shiver of delight ripple through his body as her slender arms wrapped around him from behind, but he quickly re-gathered his self control and started up his bike. In a matter of seconds, the two teens and the three pixies were speeding off towards Cloud Tower.

"Thanks for driving me to Cloud Tower, Timmy," Tecna said as they neared the dark tower.

"No problem," Timmy assured her, before an ironic grin spread across his face. "You know, it feels funny going here on a friendly mission."

"It sure does," Tecna agreed.

When the group arrived at the front doors to the school for witches, Timmy hesitated for a second before pushing open the big, dark doors. The A plus student saw with a certain level of dread that there was a group of witches congregated in the front foyer, but that soon switched to relief when he realised that he knew one of the witches there. But then it switched back to dread when he saw that she was currently in a heated disagreement with another witch.

"You said I could borrow those boots tonight. You can't go back on that," Dominique snarled, her sea grey eyes blazing and her arms folded across her chest.

"Why would I say that you could borrow my dragon hide boots tonight when I plan to wear them?" the witch Dominique was glaring daggers into retorted.

"Because you said that you were going to ware your stappy heels. You only want to wear the boots because I wanted to."

"That is not true."

"So is."

"Hey guys," a white haired witch who was standing alongside Dominique interrupted the squabble. "Look at what just walked through our front door."

Timmy flinched as every witch in the front foyer instantly turned their attention on him and Tecna and he could almost see the malicious thoughts building in their minds.

"Huh. I didn't know they home delivered bully victims," one witch smirked, making her friends laugh.

"But bloody typical that they come on a night that we're too busy getting ready for the party to torment them," another witch noted bitterly. "Can't you losers ever do anything right?"

"What do you want?" Dominique demanded, her mood still sour from the previous argument.

"Um, we were wondering where Miss Griffin was," Timmy stammered nervously. "We need to speak with her."

"She's on the terrace," Dominique told him coldly before flicking her hair in a dismissive manner. "Now if you excuse me, I need to go find that adorable pleated mini skirt of mine so I can ware it tonight."

"What? But you said I could borrow that tonight!" the witch she had been arguing with earlier exclaimed.

"Yeah, well, you promised me a set of boots."

Timmy and Tecna left the quarrelling witches and headed for Cloud Tower's main terrace. As Dominique had said, Miss Griffin was indeed up there, and even though she was standing with her back to the teens and her face looking up at the clouded sky, she knew who had joined her on the terrace without looking around. "While it's not uncommon for the odd hero to enter through my gates, it is a rarity for a fairy to come to Cloud Tower," Miss Griffin noted, still not facing them. "Might I enquire into the occasion?"

"Yes, Miss Griffin. We came here to ask about the Angel of Doom and the alignment of the Triad System," Tecna explained.

"Oh, there's a wonderful, long history of woe behind the Angel of Doom," Miss Griffin said, and it almost sounded as if she was smiling. "Countless cities and civilizations have vanished because of that dark angel, and his power is dramatically amplified when the three planets of the Triad System are aligned. I'm sure I don't have to explain to you two the strength behind the Power of Three, and those particular planets have always had a strange force behind them. I guess it would come to no surprise to you that the Trix's home planet is one of the planets that make up the Triad System."

"Not really," Timmy grinned nervously.

"We're celebrating the alignment of the Triad System this evening. It always brings about a marvellous catastrophe, although some have been known to take the occasion a bit too far."

"When precisely are they due to align?" Tecna asked.

"I won't know until tonight, but in the mean time you should watch out for Bloom. She's in grave danger," Miss Griffin warned.

"We better hurry back to Alfea," Digit suggested.

"I agree," Tecna nodded before bowing her head respectfully to the master witch. "Thank you very much for your time and help, Miss Griffin."

"The doors of Cloud Tower are always open to our allies," Miss Griffin told them before adding, "Though not too open."

* * *

"So what does Tecna think will happen tonight?" Brandon asked anxiously. "That Avalon will transform into some power sucking monster and destroy Bloom?"

Timmy shrugged. "I dunno, but one thing's for sure; Tecna really doesn't trust Avalon."

"I knew there was something wrong about that guy!" Sky snarled, pacing the room. "I just knew it!"

"Settle, petal. There's no confirmation that Avalon's going to change into anything tonight other than his pajamas so don't start with any crazy ideas about driving over to Alfea, climbing trees and pissing of magibeves. I can't stand another evening like that," Brandon said firmly. "And besides, you promised me that you'd come with me into Magix to help organise the final details for my big date with Stella tomorrow night."

"But Brandon – "

"No buts, Sky. I let you drag me out of bed to go spy on your girlfriend not long ago, and it's time that you pay the favour back," Brandon told his prince and when he saw someone walk past his dorms open door, he called out, "Hey Riv! You wonna go for a ride into Magix? We can hit the pizza place when we're done arranging a few things for my date tomorrow."

"As tempting as it is to go set up your little gag fest with your harpy, I'm afraid I've got other plans," Riven informed his friend in a not too regretful voice.

"Where you going?"

"Cloud Tower."

"Why?" Sky asked. Now that Riven was no longer dating Darcy, Sky couldn't see any reason for his friend to visit the school for witches.

"They're havin' some massive party over there tonight to celebrate the aligning of some triangle," Riven answered vaguely.

"It's the alignment of the Triad System," Timmy informed him.

"Whatever, I don't really care. But apparently the witches throw a massive party each time it happens which ends up being absolutely insane. Lex and me got an invite to it and by the sounds of it, it's gonna go off."

"Ready to go?" Lex asked, joining Riven as he readjusted the way his shirt sat across his shoulders.

"I've been ready for the last twenty minutes," Riven snarled before returning his attention back to his squad. "Anyways, I'll see you guys later."

"Have you noticed that asides from the times when we do school work, we really haven't spent any time with Riven outside of school hours?" Brandon asked as soon as Riven and Les had left. "It's like he's still going out with Darcy."

"Yeah, I've noticed that," Sky sighed. Riven was one of those people who went through life with an invisible barb wire fence wrapped around him. It was possible to reach through his defences and touch him, but there was always the risk that you'd end up getting cut. And even though Riven was friends with them again, he hadn't lowered his defences in the slightest since last year.

The only question that remained now was when was Riven going to be willing to let his friends in again.

* * *

They didn't know when he got back to Red Fountain, but Sky, Brandon and Timmy all found Riven next morning in the mess hall, crippled by a miserable hangover. His face was buried in his arms and it seemed that his very existence seemed to cause him pain.

"Good morning, sunshine," Brandon greeted cheerfully as he sat down next to his suffering friend. Riven let out an agonized groan, but other than that he made no effort to communicate with his friends. "How was last night? Was it everything you would have expected and more out of a triangle party?"

"I don't remember," Riven mumbled, still not lifting his head. "I don't even when or how I got back here. All I know is that I woke up lying next to the can machine. (2)"

"You really don't remember anything?" Timmy asked.

"I vaguely remember one of Dom's friends pulling out her private stash of potion shots, but after that everything gets a bit blurry."

"You let yourself get totally trashed? Riven! I hope none of the teachers saw you in that state," Sky scolded. "Red Fountain doesn't approve of any of its students getting totally intoxicated and you have a zero tolerance on you. If you don't start taking responsibility for your actions you're going to get kicked out of – "

"Sky," Riven begged. _"Shh."_

"I'm just saying that – "

"Dude, I don't think he cares," Brandon said as another one of their classmates joined their table. "Hey Jared. How's Lex this morning?"

"He spent the night asleep in wardrobe and he's still there," Jared reported and in return he received three puzzled yet amused looks. "I'm serious. When he got home he stumbled around our room for a bit and then fell into his wardrobe where he fell asleep (3). Don't worry, I got pictures. Honestly, Riven, how much did you guys have to drink last night?"

"I don't know," Riven groaned again. "I don't remember anything."

"Well, you're lucky it's Saturday which means you can go back to bed for the day," Brandon told him. "Meanwhile, I've got to get ready for my big date with Stella."

"Oh yeah. You ready for that?" Sky asked his best friend.

"You bet I am," Brandon grinned confidently. "She's gonna love what I've got planned for her. I'm sure of it."

* * *

"What's taking her so long?" Brandon fretted as he paced the Winx Club dormitory, waiting anxiously for Stella to finish getting ready for hers and Brandon's date. Brandon had put a lot of thought and effort into planning this date, so he was getting rather eager to get it started.

"Will you chillax?" Musa grinned, secretly amused by the squires nervous state. "You know how Stella is. She likes to make people wait for a while so she can then make a grand entrance. It's just her style."

Musa was Brandon's inside fairy for planning this date because – with the obvious exception of Stella – Musa was probably the member of the Winx Club that Brandon got along with best. That wasn't to say that he didn't get along with the other girls, but he always did feel more relaxed when he was around the musical princess and he felt that he was able to open up to her and be completely honest. Which is why when he needed someone to help him plan his romantic date with Stella and help him work out all the finer details, Brandon had instantly gone to Musa. He probably could have gone to Bloom for help since she was another member that he was close with, but he had gone with Musa because he knew that not only would she be more than willing to offer her assistance, but also because she would be able to keep Stella from finding out about their plans beforehand. Bloom was just too close with Stella to keep any secrets from her.

"Do you think Stella will like what I've got planned for tonight?" Brandon asked, fiddling nervously with his clothes. The squire had dressed to impress by wearing a pair of bone coloured slacks and a long sleeved, dark green button up shirt that he had left un-tucked to give him a smart but casual kind of look. His hair was styled as normal and in the words of Musa, he looked 'damn fine'.

"I'd bet all my instruments that she will," Musa said confidently. "Seriously Brandon, Stella's gonna be totally stoked for what you got planned for her. She's going to love that you went to this much effort just for her. You'd be surprised at how much a little bit of effort can impress a girl."

"Well, if tonight goes well I'll be sure to spread the word throughout every hall at Red Fountain," Brandon promised her. Although he knew they'd be great together, Brandon had always kind of hated the fact that such a sweet and caring girl like Musa had fallen for such a mess like Riven. Brandon viewed Musa as the little sister he had never had, so it really made his blood boil to see her get jerked around by his sadistic friend. If Riven would just get over his fear of commitment, Brandon knew that he and Musa would make a great couple, but by the looks of things, that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"Yeah, well, you may as well start now because this date you've got planned is going to blow Stella's mind."

"I hope so."

"I know so."

"Okay! I'm ready!" Stella's gorgeous voice denied Brandon the chance to respond to Musa's comment, but when he caught sight of his beloved girlfriend, all power of speech left him anyway.

Stella absolutely stole his breath away. Her long luscious blonde hair fell freely down her back, restrained by nothing but a yellow head band to stop it falling in her angelic face. Her makeup was perfect, as always, and her soft skin seemed to shimmer with a light all of its own. The sleeveless white dress she wore hugged her body tightly, but the skirt of it was loose and breezy, exposing her fantastic legs. A yellow sash was tied around her slim waist to come to an elegant bow at her back, and the neck of the dress dropped down into a modest yet slightly revealing v. A pair of white sandals with a slight heel was strapped to her feet, and her honey eyes glowed merrily as her boyfriend gaped at her.

"Stella . . ." Brandon stammered breathlessly. On the edge of his awareness he could sense Musa slink off to her room, but for the life of him Brandon just couldn't look away from the goddess in front of him to confirm that fact. "You look . . . wow . . ."

"Thank you," Stella blushed coyly, delighted that she could get such a reaction out of her boyfriend. She swung her hips lightly to cause the skirt of her dress to sway, thus exposing a bit more of her smooth legs. "You look pretty wow yourself."

"I mean it Stell, you look absolutely stunning," Brandon gasped, his pulse racing and the palms of his hands sweating. She really did look fantastic. "You're outfit looks . . . incredible."

"I thought you might like it," Stella said, spinning around so she could show of every angle of her dress. "I wasn't too sure what to wear since you didn't give me any hints on what we're doing tonight."

"All will be revealed in good time, milady," Brandon assured her, breaking out of his trance like state to offer her his arm. "First we shall start this evening with a private dance lesson with Miss Tina Sparkle at her dance studio, Strictly."

Stella let out a thrilled little gasp. "Tina Sparkle? You got us a lesson with the Tina Sparkle?"

"Well, I know how much you enjoyed learning the rumba and a little birdy told me how much you admired Tina so I'm making it so that you learn from the best."

"Oh Brandon," Stella gushed, standing on the tips of her toes so she could kiss him tenderly on the cheek. "You're the best."

"I have to be for you," Brandon told her. "And remember, the night's just beginning."

* * *

"Snookums, that dinner was exquisite," Stella sighed as the couple walked hand in hand through River Park later that night.

After a private dance lesson with Tina Sparkle, Brandon had taken Stella to a romantic, candle lit dinner for two at the one of Magix's finest restaurants, the Ritz. The restaurants was actually owned by Jacob, Red Fountain's chef, who had cut a deal with Brandon so that the squire could splurge on an expensive four course meal for his girlfriend without breaking the budget. All he had to do was spend the next four months on scullery duty at Red Fountain, but it would be worth it for Stella.

"It was pretty good," Brandon agreed in a purposely off handed tone of voice, as if eating at such an elegant place was something he did on a regular basis.

"Pretty good? It was fantastic! I don't think I've ever had a meal quite like that one, and that's including the royal kitchens at Solaria," Stella said. "Although I still can't believe you ordered kangaroo for main course."

"What? I've never had kangaroo before," Brandon told her. "It was actually pretty good. Kinda like steak."

Stella rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. "Well, the kangaroo eating aside, it was a perfect night."

"Oh, but the night's not over yet, princess. I told you; it's only just beginning."

"You mean there's more?"

"There's more," Brandon grinned as they rounded a bend in the path to come across the next part of their date that Brandon had planned for them and when Stella saw it, she let out an audible gasp.

Standing in the dappled moonlight under the River Park trees, its white coat shining like the moon itself, stood a breathtakingly beautiful unicorn. Her ivory coat was absolutely flawless and her ebony hooves flashed slickly as if they were wet. Her long, white tail was left to flow freely and her mane bounced as she bobbed her head, and Stella didn't miss the fact that both of them were without any knots. With ears pricked forward in interest, the unicorn stared at the new arrivals with intelligent liquid eyes that reflected the starlit sky above, and attached behind her was an elegant, open carriage that looked as though it had dropped right out of a fairy tale.

"Good evening," the little man standing beside the carriage said, lifting his top hat in greeting. "My name is Bobbo (4) and I'll be you're driver for this evening. And this of course is my work colleague, Pearl."

"She's beautiful," Stella gushed as she stared adoringly into the unicorn's long face.

"That she is," Bobbo agreed with a grin, patting his colleague's shoulder fondly. "I've known this girl ever since she was a young filly, so you can believe me when I say that her beauty is not skin deep."

"Oh Brandon," Stella gasped, holding out a trembling hand for Pearl to sniff. The unicorn's nostrils flared a few times as she breathed in the princess's scent before she reached over and nuzzled Stella's shoulder in a sign of friendship. "It's just like a fairy tale. It's so romantic."

"That's what we aim for, miss," Bobbo said. "Now, if the pair of you would like to climb on in, we'll get this carriage ride on the way."

River Park Unicorn Drawn Carriages was a business that promised the finest for a tender outing, so in case a unicorn carriage ride through a stunning park at night wasn't romantic enough for you, the carriage was stocked with chocolate covered strawberries with cream, various other fruits, nuts and cheeses, and if the customers were of legal drinking age – which unfortunately neither Brandon or Stella would be turning untill next year – they would also receive a bottle of high quality champagne. But in the case of under aged customers, a bottle of non alcoholic wine was supplied which Stella seemed to enjoy sipping out of her crystal champagne glass.

"Snookums," Stella sighed once more, snuggling under Brandon's arm as she listened to the musical beat of Pearl's hooves on the cobblestone path. "Tonight has been perfect."

"You think so?" Brandon asked, trying not to sound too relieved. He had spent a lot of time going over and fretting about each part of their date, so it was pleasing to know that she was enjoying it. "You didn't think it was too corny?"

"It's classic, not corny (5)," Stella told him firmly before nestling in closer to him again. "In fact, I think that this is without a doubt the most wonderful night I have ever had. I can't believe you planned all this."

"Well, just think of it as an apology for almost marrying another woman," Brandon joked, a little embarrassed by her complements.

"Yeah, I don't think they make a card for that kind of thing," Stella grinned, hugging her boyfriend tightly. "But it really has been a perfect night."

Brandon couldn't help but laugh. "Why do you keep thinking this is all I've got up my sleeve?"

Stella's honey eyes narrowed slightly in confusion, and they continued to look that way when the carriage came to a sudden stop. "Where are we?" Stella asked, looking about her surroundings. She knew this part of the park well since it was a fairly big tourist attraction due to the fact that it had the best view of the river that River Park was named after.

But it wasn't just the view that made it such a popular spot, and it wasn't the reason why Brandon had requested that Bobbo stop there.

Stella jumped as a large jet of water suddenly reared upwards out of the still surface of the river. A white light at the base of the jet shone up though the column of water, sending it a golden colour. Another jet shot up beside it, only this one was coloured blue and just as that jet died down, another red jet burst upwards. As the coloured jets of water exploded out of the water, their burst were timed to match up perfectly with a recorded instrumental that had been performed by one of Magix's leading orchestras (6). The merger of sound and sight was breath-taking and something that couples would always come to see when they put it on once a month. And when doubled with the already romantic mood given off by the unicorn drawn carriage ride, Stella looked like she was going to swoon.

"Oh Brandon," Stella gushed, her honey eyes glowing. And then, unable to think of any words to express how she felt, the princess leaned over and pressed her lips to his. Brandon quickly responded to the kiss, hugging her tightly against his body. He cared for her more than any other girl he had ever had a relationship with in the past. Hell, he loved her so much that at times it felt like his body ached for her and tonight, she was all his. No other fairies running in and taking her away from him. None of his dumb friends shattering the romantic mood. No Amentia trying to marry him and no Trix trying to enslave the universe. Tonight, everything was perfect. "I love you," Stella said when they had come up for air.

"I love you too, princess," Brandon smiled, kissing her nose. Glowing in happiness and love, Stella settled down in his arms and rested her golden head on his chest in order to watch the water and light display that was still going on in front of them.

* * *

In the very modern and fast pace city of Magix, Riverside Lodges provided a secluded and peaceful place to stay while in the city. Although small, the lodges were very comfortable and self sustained. There was a small kitchen, a fire place with a orange little fire burning in it that gave off a soothing warmth and a king-sized bed that were all in one room while the bathroom – which was the only other room in the lodge – had a decent sized spa bath in it. A balcony overlooked River Park river and everything had been done up like a country cottage to give it a nice, cosy feel.

"Very cute," Stella noted as she observed the room. She had been a bit surprised when Bobbo had dropped them off here, but she had heard a lot of good things about Riverside Lodges so it was a pleasant surprise. When her eyes fell on the bed, she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and look back at her boyfriend with a sly smile. "Why Brandon, are you trying to seduce me?"

Brandon's cheeks flushed slightly and he coughed nervously, but he steadied himself in order to explain his intentions. "I'm not expecting anything so don't you dare start feeling like I'm pressuring you into anything 'cause that's not what this night's been about. Okay? I just want to spend the night with you – just the two of us – and that's all, I swear. I just want to know what it's like to wake up in the morning and have someone as beautiful as you lying next to me."

"Brandon, I would never think that you were pushing me into something, but why didn't you warn me about this?" Stella asked in a tone that didn't sound accusing. "You want to wake up in the morning and have something beautiful lying next to you and here I am with any make-up remover."

"Princess, do you really think a hero would be that unorganized?" Brandon questioned, picking up a small travel bag that had been sitting by the door. Stella's eyes widened as she realized the bag belong to her and held her pajamas, her hair and tooth brush and all her other make-up needs in it.

"My, you did plan everything, didn't you?" Stella grinned, thrilled by the level of thought Brandon had put into their date.

"I must inform you that you have a spy in your dorm and that I found her to be most reliable," Brandon informed his girlfriend in a serious voice. "After we left, she collected anything that she thought you might need and brought it here."

"Like champagne?" Stella asked, pulling the bottle out of her bag. Brandon's brown eyes widen. He hadn't planned that. "Somehow I get the feeling that that's more your friends than mine."

"Yeah, I think you're right," Brandon agreed, before looking nervously at his beloved girlfriend. "Are you okay with this? You know, sleeping in the same bed and all?"

"I fine with it. Everything tonight was too perfect for me not to be," Stella told him, putting her bag on the ground and moving over to him so she could slip into another hug. "And besides, I don't think we're going to do that much sleeping anyway."

Brandon's heart slammed against his rib cage as Stella grabbed his face and kissed him passionately and purposely on the lips. His knees went weak so he followed freely as Stella dragged him down on top of her on the bed where Brandon melted deeper in the kiss and into her.

* * *

_(1) I've had crushes on the hot, young student teachers that did their practical work at my high school, so I know that it's not uncommon for students to crush teachers _

_(2) I knew a guy who's done that _

_(3) And I know I guy who's done that, though if memory severs I don't think he spent the night there. He just fell in and laid there for a little while before finding his bed _

_(4) Bobbo was the name to the driver when Carrie and Mr. Big did a horse drawn carriage ride through Central Park in the Sex and the City episode, I Heart NY_

_(5) A line from the same Sex and the City episode _

_(6) The have something like this in Disney World, or at least they did when I went there over a decade ago, but I don't see why they'd get rid of it. It was pretty cool and one some nights they're have a guy standing opposite it acting like he was conducting it. Pretty cool _

_Okay, before all you Stella and Brandon fans yell at me for not writing a lemon or whatever, just hear me out; there are certain things that I made the decision not to include in this series of stories such as certain curse words and writing perspectives told from the Winx Club (unless it was completely relevant) and descriptive sex sense is one of those things. I make references to them and led you right up to the very start of them, but from there you've got to use your imagination. Sorry, but that's just a choice I made as the author. I'm yet to write anything like that and I don't want to screw up this massive piece of work just for one lemon. Maybe someday I'll dare to attempt a lemon, but it's not today. _

_Having said all that, aren't Stella and Brandon perfect together? _

_But then again, perfect is boring. TBC. _


	10. Reaching For the Sky

_Since I had a few mixed reviews form the last chapter, figure this would be a good time to respond to all those people telling me to change my ending; sorry, but I am not changing it. I understand that some people might not agree with me, but I made this decision based on several factors, first and foremost being that it's my story and I get to decide how it goes. I'm not going to give into peer pressure and change what I've written just because somebody doesn't like what they read. The second reason I not changing the ending is because – whether people approve of it or not – sex is becoming a typical part of high school students lives. Whether they're doing anything or not, puberty is the time when people become of their sexuality – it's biology, you can't change that – and I'm trying to write a story based on typical (and not so typical) issues that a bunch of high school boys would go through. And what's so scandalise about a teenage girl expressing her feeling physically in a monogamies relationship? It's not like she's whoring herself to some stranger, and just because she's a princess doesn't mean she has to live up to a high moral code than the rest of us. She's a free spirited, self-centred, sometimes offensively blunt teenage girl who I believe wouldn't let her title stand in the way of anything she wanted. And finally, no had any problems when I gave Riven and Darcy a sexual relationship, so why is it different if I put Stella in that situation? Now I'm not going to get all feminist about this 'cause that's just annoying (Layla) but you also can't argue that it's alright for Darcy because she's a villain. You don't have to be a virgin to be a goody. _

_But if you still disagree with me, just think of it this way; if the Winx Club ever get stuck in a situation where they have to sacrifice virgins to please the volcano gods, at least Stella won't be one of the ones hurled to her death in the lava pit._

_Anyway, onto the next chapters. It's very long (about the same length as Party Monster if you can remember how long that one was) and has an oddly named chamber in it which I am spelling exactly the way it sounds because it sounds so stupid that i couldn't resist._

_

* * *

_**Chapter Ten – Reaching for the Sky**

Javelin wasn't in the classroom when Sky and the rest of the Red Fountain juniors arrived for their lesson, which was very unusual for the silent teacher. No matter what was going on else where in the school, Javelin could always be found in his room five minutes before class started. That didn't mean that his classes always started on time since the thin man would often sit at his desk or at the back of the room, completely enthralled with whatever he was doing, but he was always there none the less.

"Maybe he got fired," Riven speculated.

Brandon looked up from the notes he was glancing over, an almost insulted look on his face. "Why would they fire him? He's been here for years. As if they'd let him go."

"Well where do you think he is, then? Kidnapped by ninjas?"

"No. That's Sky's theory."

"Leave me out of this," Sky ordered as he started massaging his temples to try and relieve some tension. His blonde head was too full of thoughts about his relationship with Bloom to let himself get dragged into some foolish discussion. He saw Riven roll his eyes, but the prince refused to rise to the bait.

"Are you alright, Sky?" Timmy asked. "You've been really . . . I dunno . . . distracted recently."

"I've just been thinking, that's all," Sky assured them. A silence followed as three pairs of eyes stared into the prince, waiting for him to elaborate. Sky tried to ignore them, but it was actually quite unnerving to have the three of them watching him like that. "About me and Bloom and where our relationship is going. You know that we've been dating for almost exactly three months now?"

"Ooh, make or break time," Brandon nodded, noticing the crucial time frame in a relationship that Sky was quickly approaching while Timmy and Riven looked completely clueless. But when he digested what Sky had said a little further, his eyebrows frowned in confusion as well. "Wait a minute. Three months? No way, it's been longer than that."

"Yes, but you've got to remember that there was that week last year when Bloom found out that you and I switch identities and she stopped talking to me," Sky reminded his squire.

"How could I forget that?" Brandon sighed. It still made his stomach turn every time he thought about the Day of the Royals last year that resulted in him being forced into social exile from all his friends.

"What does three months have to do with anything?" Riven asked. The only real relationship he had ever been in had skipped all this courtship drama that Sky and Brandon were putting themselves through, so he had no idea what half the stuff the two Eraklyains worried about meant.

"It's the make or break point in a relationship," Brandon said again. "You've got to either end it or take it to the next level."

"What? They have a time schedule for relationships now? That's the most ridiculous thing . . . I've . . . ever . . ."

Riven trailed off as his violet eyes moved towards the door and what he saw caused all former thoughts to leave his mind. Sky, Brandon and Timmy – who all had their backs to the door – watched as the most particular expression crossed Riven's face and it took them a few moments before they could identify it; pure, unbridled, glee.

"What?" Sky asked, looking over his shoulder towards the door as Riven collapsed onto the table in front of him, his body heaving in uncontrollable laughter. And when Sky saw who just entered the room to cause his normally moody friend to act such a way, his blue eyes widened while Brandon ended up in a state much like Riven. "_Lex?_ What . . ?"

"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up," was all Lex said as he made his way to his seat, his eyes fixed on the floor to avoid making eye contact with any of his classmates. All around him, the class were either staring at him in pure shock much like Sky and Timmy, or else they were laughing so hard that they no longer had the strength in their legs to stand on their own.

"But . . . your hair . . ." Sky gasped. "It's . . . It's longer . . ."

"And it's lime green," Timmy added.

Normally, Lex wore his hair short and spiked, but today he had arrive to class with long, shaggy hair that reached past his shoulders and, like Timmy had said, it had changed from its usual black colouring to lime green.

"I was at Cloud Tower last night, you know, hanging out with Dominique," Lex said very quickly, eager to get the explanation out as fast as possible. "She was ranting to one of the other witches about how much effort her hair is and I said that girls make hair more complicate than it needs to be. Anyway, she got mad – "

"No surprise there," Sky said.

" – and so she jinxed my hair to look like this."

"If you're that embarrassed by it why don't you just shave it off?" Timmy asked.

"I have. I've shaved my head twenty-eight times since she spelled me but it grows back at lightning fast speed," Lex explained tragically. "And that's not the worse bit."

"There's more?" half the class exclaimed in unison while the other half continued their laughing fit. Lex nodded regretfully.

"It changes colour. I don't know how but . . . oh crap."

The junior class watched in both horror and amusement as the roots of Lex's long hair changed from lime green to a light shade of pink. Like dye through water, the pink colour spread throughout Lex's hair, which had had another growth spurt to reach passed his waist. Everyone who wasn't laughing at that point could no longer contain themselves and burst out into howls of mirth while Lex sulked silently in his seat.

"Alright, silence," Javelin ordered a minute later as he marched into the room, his eyes fixed on a file in his hands. "I'd like to teach students, not a pack of hyenas so quiet everyone.

"Now, if any of you boys were curious to know of the perfect way to disrupt a working environment, I can confirm that upgrading everything three weeks into the working year works quite well. For instance, today I was supposed to be teaching you all advanced battle tactics but . . ." Javelin trailed off when he finally looked up at his class for the first time since entering the room and his eyes instantly fell onto Lex. His expression remained as blank as always as he stared at the pink haired boy before he finally said in a composed voice, "You're dating a witch, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Lex muttered quietly.

"_Hmm_, they were doing that spell back when I was at school," Javelin informed them stiffly before resuming his lesson. "As I was saying, I'm supposed to be teaching you advanced tactics, but certain inconsistencies in the time table have stated that you're now supposed to be with Codatorta in the command tower as he takes you through Red Alert procedures. I'm neither pleased nor impressed with this error, but what can you do?"

That was an example of Javelin absolutely losing it.

At Javelin's command, the class grabbed their belongings and headed off towards the new Red Fountain command tower for their lesson with Codatorta. The combat instructor wasn't as calm about Lex's hair as Javelin was and it took three hair cuts and sixteen changes in colour for him to give up and continue on with his lesson. Timmy naturally took to the new technology like a fish to water, but others found it a little harder to grasp all the information.

"Sky! Are you even paying attention?" Codatorta barked at one point, making the prince jumped out of his thoughts.

"Yes sir," Sky lied.

"Then would you please repeat what I just said," Codatorta ordered. A horrible silence filled the room, making every student squirm (1). Sky's cheeks tinted red and he shamefully lowered his head. "Right, you stay here after class. I want a word with you."

"Yes sir."

Codatorta resumed his lesson, but now Brandon wasn't listening. He tried to catch his best friend's eye since he knew something was troubling him. Sky had never been caught out not listening in class and he had never been asked to stay behind after class unless it was for something good or if he was in trouble along with Riven. Finally, Sky stopped sulking and he noticed Brandon watching him out of the corners of his eyes. "You okay?" Brandon whispered as quietly as he could.

Sky nodded and when he was sure Codatorta wasn't watching him, he whispered back, "I think I need to talk to Bloom."

* * *

Codatorta's 'talk' left Sky feeling like he had been ripped to shreds. The combat instructor had pointed out every little flaw that Sky had shown since the school year had started and it made Sky realize that he was not up to the usual standard that he had displayed in the last two years he had been at Red Fountain. He stayed in the command tower long after Codatorta left, thinking about everything he had done so far this year. He had done plenty of good this year such as rescuing the pixie's from Darkar and saving Brandon from wedlock, but, like Codatorta had pointed out, he wasn't as focused. He's theory work wasn't as detailed as it normally was and even his efforts in battle class had become a bit lacked. He should have worked out a way to contain the Lio Dragerus faster than he did and his skill with dragon wrangling had slipped.

Prince Sky was distracted, to put it simply, and he needed to put an end to it.

Pulling out his cell phone, Sky dial a number and a few seconds later, Bloom's cheery voice appeared on the other end. "Hey! I'm so glad you called 'cause I was just talking to Stella and she gave me the best date idea ever!"

"I need to see you Bloom," Sky blurted out as he entered one of the elevators and started to go down through Red Fountain. He had meant to start off the phone call with light, causal conversation before getting down to the more serious stuff but as soon as he heard her voice, he knew he just wanted to see her so he could get what he needed to say said as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this wasn't the kind of thing someone should do over the phone.

Bloom, however, didn't seem to have heard him. "Well, Stella and Brandon went on a unicorn drawn carriage ride through Magix River Park. Stella said it was really romantic but I mean I just thought it would be – "

"Bloom," Sky said in an effort to try and get her attention. He knew about the unicorn carriage ride because he was there when Brandon booked it. He really needed to talk to Bloom but she just wasn't listening.

" – kinda fun," Bloom continued before she realized that Sky might have said something to her. "Huh? Did you say something?"

"Bloom," Sky started, but before he could say another word, Bloom jumped to conclusions and started talking again.

"You think it's a cheesy idea, don't you?"

Sky took a deep breath. It was now or never. "Before we go out again I'd like to have a talk."

"What kind of talk?"

"To be honest I want to have a serious talk with you."

"Huh?"

"Can you come see me at school tomorrow?" Sky asked, hoping that she'd just agree and come over and see him so he could do this. But unfortunately, Sky's luck was another thing that wasn't up to its usual standard.

"Er, am I missing something? Is everything okay?"

"I don't want to get into it on the phone."

"If there's something wrong I'd want to know about it," Bloom said with a little bit of force behind it.

"I'd just like to talk to you in person, okay?"

"If it's about Diaspro you need to tell me right now."

"Come on," Sky couldn't help but groan. He was finished with Diaspro. She knew that, so why did she always bring her up? It wasn't like Sky wanted to be with her. The whole thing had been arranged by his parents and their counsellors. He wanted to see Bloom tomorrow to discuss them, not Diaspro. Why did that blonde princess of Quartz always get in his way? "It's not about Diaspro."

"You promised you wouldn't see her again!"

"Bloom! I . . . can't believe you're bringing up Diaspro," Sky snapped. He was tired and frustrated and Bloom wasn't helping him by putting up walls in front of this conversation and blocking him every time he tried to say something. He was unaware that at that very moment, Bloom walked directly into an actual real wall causing her to fall to the ground.

"Excuse me but she was only your fiancée!" Bloom snarled back in an anger that was born out of suspicion and embarrassment.

"It's over now!"

"Okay, I believe you," Bloom said in an apologetic tone, making Sky feel horrible.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you," the prince apologized. "Can you just meet me at my dorm tomorrow afternoon?"

"Fine," Bloom agreed.

"I'll see you then."

"Bye," Bloom said as the pair of them hung up. No sooner had he done that, but the lift he was in came to a sudden stop and the lights dimmed. Never a good sign.

"Huh? Man," Sky groan, pushing one of the buttons to try and get the lift going again. But his lack of good luck continued as nothing happened and the lifted stayed right where it was. "What a lame day!"

He was completely unaware that at Alfea, Bloom was shouting the exact same thing. He was also unaware that it was going to be half an hour before someone realized that the lift wasn't working and a further hour before anyone could get him out of there.

This just wasn't his day.

* * *

"Dude, you need to relax," Brandon advised his best friend the following afternoon. The squire was passing time by lifting a few weights in front of the mirror while his prince and opted for pacing the room like a caged animal. Sky had been like that all day. He had barely eaten anything since he had invited Bloom to come over yesterday and he wasn't paying any attention to what was going on around him, be it lessons or whatever his friends were saying. It didn't go unnoticed by the other boys, but it was only Brandon that Sky could talk too about it.

"I can't help it," Sky confessed, dropping down onto his bed. "Are you sure having this talk with Bloom is a good idea? I'm nervous."

"Bro, everybody knows you've got to have 'the talk' after the three month mark," Brandon reminded him. "If you don't, the relationship's done."

"But what do I say?"

"Tell her how much you like her and give her your Red Fountain hero jacket," Brandon advised as Sky dialled Bloom's number on his cell phone. Brandon put his weights down. "It'll be fine."

Sky didn't look too convinced and it didn't help when he got Bloom's voice message. His only relief was that she had changed it from the Bloom and Kiko one. If he heard that another time he was going to lose it. But even with the change in voice massage he still felt uneasy as he heard Bloom's voice on the recording. "Hey, you've reached Bloom – "

"That's Princess Bloom of Sparx," Stella's voice cut in.

"And planet Earth," Musa added before Bloom was allowed to continue.

"Just leave a message."

_Beep._

"Er, hey. I just wanted to confirm that I'll see you today (2)," Sky told the machine but beyond that he couldn't think of anything to say, so he just ended the call and threw his phone away out of frustration. Too anxious to sit around any more, Sky got to his feet and headed out onto their dorms balcony. "I'm going to practice what I'm going to say to her."

"Man, he's got it bad," Brandon grinned to himself as he bent over to pick up the weight he had been lifting before. His fingers had just touched the metal bar when the squire suddenly froze. An uneasy feeling washed over him and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as a warning shiver raced down his spin. Straightening, Brandon glanced around uneasily.

Something wasn't right.

Outside, Sky was too focused on what he was going to say to Bloom to pick up on any feelings of impending danger. Gripping the railing tightly, the prince stared down at the ground and tried to straighten out his thoughts. He had always tried not to be too forward with Bloom since he didn't want to scare her and because it really wasn't his style, but this wasn't a conversation where he wanted to give mixed signals. Maybe being straight and up front was the best way to do this. "I like you and I'd like to officially ask you to be my girlfriend."

Brandon suddenly appeared on the balcony with him, and Sky could sense without even looking that his best friend was alarmed about something. "Huh?"

"I sound like a dork, don't I?" Sky said, but Brandon hadn't even heard what he had said. All his attention was focused on a large, purple globe that was hovering around the new campus. And from the looks of it, it wasn't friendly.

"Watch out Sky!" Brandon shouted as the globe passed in front of their balcony. A bolt of lighting shot out of the globe directly towards the two boys. Brandon quickly raised his arms to help protect his face while Sky, who the attack was aimed at, threw himself to the ground. The boy's fast reactions managed to keep them out of harms way, but the railing and part of the balcony was completely chard. "Oh! That's brand new!"

"Have a little perspective, Brandon," Sky advised, scrambling to his feet and bolting inside, Brandon close behind him. In a record amount of time, the two boys changed out of their civies and into their uniforms. Not wasting any time, the two of them bolted out into the corridor where there were already countless students running around.

"Red Alert. Red Alert," a female sounding mechanical voice alerted over the loud speakers. "All Students to emergency battle stations. Follow Red Fountain emergency procedures."

"We've gotta get to the hanger!" Sky called back to Brandon as they ran. "We'll be needed in the junior air squad!"

"What was that thing?" Brandon asked, weaving through the crowd and his question was answered as Codatorta's rough voice suddenly broadcasted itself across the school's PA system.

"Gentlemen, we are being attacked but an unidentified Mayhem Globe. Junior Air Squad: launch and intercept!" Codatorta commanded just as Brandon and Sky entered the hanger. Not hesitating, the two boys each climbed into a Red Wing single fighter jet and went about launching them.

"This is Prince Sky in Red Wing Zero-Five. Ready of launch."

"Copy that Red Wing Five," the hangers CIC reported. "Beginning count down to launch."

Sky watch as the screen in front of his fighter counted down from three and as soon as it reached zero, the launching gears kicked in and Sky's jet was forced forward with an incredible amount of speed. The launch tunnel whizzed by him and in a matter of seconds he was propelled out into the clear, blue sky that surrounded his school. Half a minute later, Brandon joined him and the two of them joined the rest of the Junior Air Squad in the attempts to try and stop this Mayhem Globe.

"Codatorta, we have visual contact," Sky reported back to the main control tower.

"Keep it away for the main tower," Codatorta ordered sternly.

"You ready for this, Brandon?" Sky asked through a private link to Brandon's jet.

"You bet," Brandon replied, and Sky could tell from the sound of his voice that his friend was grinning. "Let's got take this oversized disco ball down!"

"Right behind you, man."

"Target approaching campus. Velocity five hundred miles an hour," Brandon reported back to the command tower. Taking aim, Brandon tried to shoot the Mayhem Globe down, but despite its massive size, the Globe proved to be quite nimble and easily dodged the attack. All the other fighter jet tried to hit it as well, but their shots failed to meet their target as well.

"Whatever happens, do not let this thing get inside the school," Codatorta ordered across all lines so that every Red Fountain student heard it. "If it finds a way in it will detonate."

Timmy had been inside the command tower running over a few programs when the attack had been alerted, so he had instantly assumed control over the school main computer and defence system. Codatorta had arrived to take command but there was no doubt in anyone's mind which one of them was really running the show. With his fingers moving fast over the kegs, Timmy radioed messaged to every sector of the school and analysed their chances of winning this battle, as well of the chances of what would happen should the battle turn ill.

"My analyses show that the amount of mayhem in the globe could destroy our entire campus," Timmy informed the combat master. He would have liked to go on ranting about unfair it was that their school _always_ seemed to be getting attacked (3), but he knew the Codatorta wouldn't want to hear it so he just kept his mouth shut. Behind him, he heard the doors to the elevator open and someone joined them on the bridge, but Timmy didn't dare take his eyes off the screen. And there really wasn't a need to since a second later the person spoke, and Timmy easily identified who the person was.

"Codatorta, the Elite Guard have been deployed to the Berrytoss Chamber as ordered. It's being protected now," Riven reported. He had been speaking with Javelin when the alert had gone out and his teacher had volunteered him to help them with the command tower. He would have preferred to be out there with the Junior Air Squad or with the dragon riders, but he knew that there was more to a battle than just the front line. Still, that didn't mean he had to like it.

"The Mayhem Globe is going to probe our defences for any weakness. We cannot allow it to find a way in," Codatorta reminded everyone before he started barking orders over every loudspeaker and radio frequency that was open to him. "Juniors; keep your eye on the globe. Elite Guards; watch the chamber. Dragons riders club; protect the north entrance. Sky, Brandon; keep after it. The first one to stop this thing gets to skip final exams."

"That's enough incentive for me!" Brandon grinned.

"Brandon, it's trying to destroy our school," Sky pointed out. "How much more incentive do you need?"

"Every little bit helps."

* * *

Helia had been in his dorm room when the attack had started.

He had been sitting at his desk working on a poem that had been hovering around his mind for the last few days when something hit the school close to his room, and the impact was enough to cause the glass of water that had been sitting on Helia's desk to topple over and land directly onto a sketch that the art student had been trying to transform into a watercolour painting. He had only added a few colours to the light, preliminary sketches, but the green from the fairy's eyes bleed across the page, possibly ruining for ever. Helia cursed and quickly grabbed an old paint rag to try and soak up the water, while simultaneously trying to work out what might have cause the tremor. His answer came when something large and circular shot past his window.

"What the . . ?" Helia stammered, running to the window and scanning the sky. From above him, he saw glimpse of a large, purple coloured globe darting around the schools campus, occasionally firing purple bolts of lighting into the school. Stunned, Helia found himself watching the globes dangerous attack while in the room next to him, he heard the sounds of someone scrambling around. Seconds later, Prince Sky and Brandon bolted past Helia's open door.

"Red Alert. Red Alert," a female sounding mechanical voice alerted over the loud speakers. "All Students to emergency battle stations. Follow Red Fountain emergency procedures."

"Emergency procedure?" Helia repeated. He had been briefed on such procedures, but he was still new at Red Fountain so he had no idea what he was supposed to do. None the less, he knew that he needed to help in what little way he could.

"Gentlemen, we are being attacked but an unidentified Mayhem Globe. Junior Air Squad: launch and intercept!" Codatorta's voice ordered over the PA system as Helia changed into his uniform as quickly as he could – though he still wasn't as fast as it as Sky or Brandon – and headed out into the halls. Red Fountain heroes were all running to their assigned emergency stations and as a slightly control level of mayhem overran the school. With no idea where he was supposed to go, Helia made his way through the halls of Red Fountain, always keeping close to the wall so that people with a clearer idea of what was happening and what needed to be done could get past. But with each minute that Helia wondered around aimlessly, it became more apparent that he didn't have a clue what he was supposed to do.

"This is ridiculous, Helia," the art student hissed to himself. "You should have stayed at Ossacip. What the hell possessed you to join this academy?"

"Helia!" a soft voice called, and the pacifist turned to see three fairies heading his way, and he could see that even though this wasn't their school, all three of them were as worried and as willing to fight as any hero.

"Flora," Helia gasped, since it had been her that had called to him. She was as beautiful as he remembered, and he couldn't help but stare for a moment before he recalled that there was an emergency going on. "Bloom. Tecna. What are you all doing here?"

"Well, you see . . ." Bloom started, but she trailed off and a miserable expression crossed her face.

"We just came over to visit the boys and we saw your school being attacked," Tecna explained. "What's going on?"

"Codatorta said it was a Mayhem Globe, but we have no idea who conjured it or what their objective might be," Helia informed them.

"If you ask me it was probably conjured by the same people who sent that Lio Dragarous on the day of the new campus unveiling," Tecna said confidently. "They were after something that day but failed so I'm sure this time they'll mean business."

"That would make sense," Helia agreed, struck at how smart and logical Tecna was, but then again he knew that he shouldn't be since the girl did come from Zenrith and she was greatly admired by Timmy. "Codatorta would be in the command tower and I'm pretty sure that's where Timmy would be as well. You girls might be of some use there since you all seem to have a pretty good understanding of battle tactics and know magic better than any boy here."

"That's true," Bloom nodded.

"Can you lead us there, Helia?" Flora asked, a noticeable level of eagerness in her eyes.

"Of course," Helia said with a respectful bow. "Follow me."

Helia and the three fairies hurried through the school, wasting no time on idle chit chat or dallying. When they arrived at the command tower, Helia wasn't surprised to find that he had been correct in assuming that Timmy would be there with Codatorta overseeing Red Fountain's efforts to defeat this new threat, but what Helia was surprised to discover was that Riven was there as well, though one look at the irritable youth's face told everyone that he wasn't too pleased with the arrangement.

"Codatorta, Bloom, Flora and Tecna are here," Helia announced. "I thought they could help."

"Yeah, for sure," Timmy agreed eagerly and Codatorta seemed grateful for the help.

"Here's the situation, we don't know who sent this thing but we have to keep it away from the school," the combat instructor explained. "We've got all our aerial squads out there trying to destroy it. That globe's got enough dark magic inside it to level the school."

"Tecna said earlier that this might just be a distraction for something else," Bloom said. "Is there anything you can think of that might be worth stealing?"

Timmy and Riven exchanged a quick, sideways glance at one another. They were aware that on both recent attacks on the school, Saladin and Codatorta had been very concerned with protecting the contents of the new Berrytoss Chamber that had been built in the lower levels of the school. None of the students knew exactly what was inside the Berrytoss Chamber, but they were all eager to find out. Codatorta frown as he contemplated whether or not his should disclose such important information with a group of high school students, but with one final glance at Bloom, he nodded.

"Alright, but none of this is to become too wide spread. The less people who know about this, the better, got it?"

"Yes sir," the three boys answered swiftly while the three girls just nodded.

"Good. Now, Lord Darkar recent kidnapped several pixies to interrogate them in order to find the location of their village as I'm sure you don't need reminding, but the reason why Lord Darkar wanted to know the location of Pixie Village was because Pixie Village is one of the locations that possess part of a powerful magical key known as a Codex. There are four in total; one at Pixie Village, one at Cloud Tower, one at Alfea and one kept here at Red Fountain. If all four pieces of the Codex are put together, they will open a doorway to the Realm of Realix that was sealed on order to protect an impossible powerful supply of magic that no one – be it good or evil – should posses. After talking with the pixies that were kidnapped, Ms. Faragonda believes that Lord Darkar is after the Ultimate Power, which means he's after the Codex." (4)

"Then that Lio Dragerus attack was just a decoy for Lord Darkar to try and steal the Codex?" Timmy asked.

"We believe so," Codatorta nodded. "And this time, I'm sure he indents to get it."

"But why a Mayhem Globe?" Tecna questioned, looking over the monitors. "Surely there are better ways to go about a robbery."

"Darkar probably sent the Trix to do his dirty work," Bloom reminded everyone. "And if I know Icy, she'd probably think it's an extra bonus to destroy Red Fountain. They'll get the Codex and have some fun while they're at it. They're sadistic enough to think of something like that."

"If the Mayhem Globe gets inside, even if it doesn't detonate it could still cause some damage," Timmy told them all. "It could take out our defence system and with that kind of chaos those witches could just walk right into this place."

"Codatorta," a voice suddenly came over the intercom. The boys all recognized it as Toby, who was no doubt out there on his fat, little dragon, Monty. "The globe is leaving the immediate area. Should we follow it?"

"Yes, go after it," Codatorta ordered. "Junior squad, go get that globe!"

"But what if it's a diversion?" Helia asked, not liking the fact that all their air defences was being sent away.

"It may be, but we can't let that thing run lose. It may end up in Magix and imagine the damage it would do if it detonated there. We've got the Elite Guard protecting the Codex and we have enough students here if they should need any back up."

"H-Hey, Riven?" a small voice said quietly. Riven jumped and looked down to see Bloom's big, blue eyes staring at him. For some reason, they looked trouble and somewhat saddened, but Riven wasn't nosey or empathetic enough to inquire about it. "Um, is Sky . . . um . . ?"

"He's with the Junior Air Squad. You know, with the jets?" Riven explained, not aware that at that very moment, Sky had abandoned pursuing the Mayhem Globe and was making his way back to Red Fountain where he thought he would be better use in the command tower. There were enough people following the globe in their jets or on their dragons, and he had a bad feeling that something wasn't right back at Red Fountain.

"Oh. Okay," Bloom nodded, her eyes downcast and one of her hands nervously twirling a strand of her red hair. Riven had already moved on to examine one of the command towers monitors so he didn't notice, but it didn't escape Helia's keen observation. Before he could comment on it, however, a small tremor ripped through the school, and a second later, a monitor near Timmy started flashing as a warning siren filled the room.

"Hey! Someone's broken into the north wing!" Timmy exclaimed, causing the girls to all gasp.

"There is a direct path from there to the Berrytoss Chamber. We can't let them get to the Codex," Codatorta commanded. Without waiting for any further orders, Riven, Helia and the three girls headed for the elevator. Timmy, however, stayed seated and continued to monitor the information that was being sent to him from various places around the school and from the Junior Air Squad who were still trying to destroy the Mayhem Globe.

"I'll see you later," Timmy heard Tecna say from somewhere behind him, and he knew without looking that she was speaking to him. "Be careful, okay?"

"You too Tecna. Be careful," Timmy said, but he didn't take his eyes off of the screen in front of him. With the Trix or Lord Darkar and the Mayhem Globe they conjured in the area, things were getting dangerous, and they needed every person completely focused if they were going to survive this.

* * *

Sky fidget slightly, shifting from foot to foot as he waited for the elevator to reach the bridge. He was still breathing heavily after sprinting from the hanger to the command tower and he was trying to get himself under control before Codatorta saw him. Sky knew that the combat instructor would need everyone to be in complete controlled and prepared for anything, so he started to even out his breathing and slow down his heart beat.

"Just relax, Sky," the prince told himself, closing his eyes in order to focus. "Relax. You've got to stay focused. Just concentrate. Concentrate. Concentrate."

Sky heard a slight ding that indicated that he had reached his level. Opening his eyes, Sky felt in complete control and he was ready to focus on the task that was at hand . . .

. . . or at least he was until he saw who was standing on the other side of the door.

Riven was there, as was Helia, Tecna and Flora, but it was Bloom that grabbed Sky's attention entirely. Up until that moment, Sky had completely forgotten about the fact that he had invited her to speak with him today and all of a sudden the nerves that had been plaguing him all day because of what he wanted to ask her came crashing down around him. His heartbeat which he had just managed to slow down suddenly quickened, and he felt his guts twist in a nervousness he hadn't experienced when he had faced the Mayhem Globe. Bloom also looked at him nervously. Whether she could tell what it was he wanted to say to her, Sky didn't know, but if Riven hadn't stepped in to remind them that there was a mission waiting for them, Sky predicted that the two of them would have remained standing like that for some time.

"We have to go protect the Codex," Riven said gruffly.

Sky nodded. "I'll go with you guys."

"Good luck!" Timmy called as the group entered the lift and then vanished as the door slide shut. The teenage genius and his instructed when back to concentrating fully on the monitor and the drama that was being displayed on them.

"Codatorta, we have the Mayhem Globe contained," Brandon's voice finally said over the radio. "We have several Red Wings holding in their stasis rays. Awaiting further instructions."

"Keep it there. Don't try and move it. I repeat; don't try and move it," Codatorta ordered. "We'll send back up as soon as possible. In the meantime send all dragon riders and all available jets back to Red Fountain. We have an intruder inside the school. I need all available aerial squad to patrol the sky and stop any chance of escape. We can't let – "

Whatever Codatorta was going to say next was cut off when a sudden zap of electricity ripped through Red Fountain's system. For a second, all the monitors went dead before flickering and rebooting themselves. Timmy quickly got to work assessing the damage that unexpected energy wave cause.

"Our intercom and PA systems are down," Timmy reported, his fingers flying over the keys of his computer. "Just give me a second and I'll . . . got 'em!"

Instantly, the sound of static and distress signals filled the room.

" – anyone there?"

"Command Tower? Do you read me?"

"This is Dragon Riders Club Captain. Come in."

"There's been an elevator malfunction. We're stuck in here!"

"The lockdown system to the weaponry has been activated! It's not opening!"

"This is Professor Codatorta and I am commanding everyone to calm down!" Codatorta shouted over all lines. The distress signals lessened and Timmy and Codatorta went about assessing damage and giving orders. "Timmy, I want you to just get our main system running again and then leave the rest to me. I got a feeling Sky and the others are going to need your help."

"Yes sir."

* * *

The elevator that the fairies and the heroes were in came to a sudden stop just as they reached the lower levels. Sky and Riven had quickly pried the doors open and lead the girls and Helia through the school towards the path that would take them to the Berrytoss Chamber as quickly as possible. They were aware of the fact that this was most likely the path that the intruders had taken, so everyone was on their guard, though Riven was very conscious of the fact that he did not have his sabre on him.

'Last time I listen to school rules,' Riven thought bitterly to himself, referring to the rule that denied them the right to carry weapons on the school grounds outside of combat class in an effort to try and reduce the amount of fighting that occurred in the hallways. He had other weapons on him, sure, but none of them were as deadly and as affective as his sabre and if they were to run into the intruders, Riven had no idea what he was going to do. His dilemma was answered for him when Bourne and a guy with long brown hair came bolting across the grounds to join their group.

"Riven!" the brown haired boy called, tossing Riven his sabre that he had somehow managed to get his hands on. After a second, Riven identified the stranger as Lex, who was still suffering from the hair style spell that the witch Dominique had put on him (5).

Feeling much more confident with his sabre gripped tightly in his hand, Riven continued to run towards the direction of the Berrytoss Chamber, but when his violet eyes scanned the sky, he saw three figures that made him forget about the Codex all together. "Look!"

"It's the witches!" Bloom gasped, quickening her pace, but she was already running about as fast as her legs could manage so the faster boys – particularly Riven and Bourne – still managed to out strip her. Riven, the fastest of the group, was the last to see the witches as they vanished behind the upper levels of the school. Gritting his teeth, Riven gripped his sabre tightly as a familiar feeling of hate and anger flooded through him. He had a score to settle with those witches.

"Dude, follow me," Riven order to Bourne, the only who had been able to keep up with him. The two of them bolted up a set of stairs onto a raised walkway in the area where the witches had vanished. But as the two heroes scanned the sky, they saw no trace of the Trix Sisters.

"Hey! Where'd they go?" Bourne panted, a noticeable level of panic in his voice. A deep growl formed in Riven's throat, but he struggled to keep himself from losing his temper as he continued to keep an eye open for his ex and her sisters. He didn't have to look for long.

"Hi sweets," a deep, dark and seductive voice that Riven knew all too well greeted the two boys. Riven and Bourne jumped as the three Trix Sisters in all their terrible wickedness levitated up to hover just above the railing of the walkway. Riven had seen the Trix plenty of times during the attacks of the Army of Decay, but he still got a wave of white anger whenever he laid eye on his ex, coupled with a secret element of desire. A coy little crossed the witch's wickedly beautiful face as she observed the burgundy haired specialist. She had almost forgotten how roguishly handsome he was.

But Darcy was denied the chance to watch him further because as soon as they had made themselves known, Icy had gathered an ice attack in her hands and hurled it at the two boys standing in front to them. The attack was enough to cause the boys to throw themselves backwards. Bourne managed to keep his feet, but his nerves got the better of him and he bolted (6).

Riven, however, lost both his footing and his hold on the hilt of his sabre, but unlike Bourne, he wasn't going to run away from these bitches. Picking up his sabre, Riven scrambled to his feet and charge the Trix. He didn't care that they had the advantage of numbers and the fact that they knew how to fly. He wanted some pay back for the way they had messed with his head last year and caused him to betray his friends, so without thinking, he charged blindly forward.

_Crack!_

A burning pain ripped through Riven's body as one of Stormy's lightning attacks hit him square in the chest. The attack was powerful enough to send Riven flying backwards and smash into the wall behind him. After that, everything went black.

"Pathetic," Darcy _scoff_ed, regarding her unconscious ex. With a wicked laugh, the three witches moved on just as Sky and the rest of the group ran up the stairs.

Sky only had to take one look at the scorched floor and his unconscious friend to realise that the witches had in fact gotten meaner and that they meant business. He just spotted the end of Darcy's hair as the three sisters vanished again, but he knew where they were going. Without hesitating, Sky turned on his intercom in order to call for backup. "Brandon, the witches are headed to the Berrytoss Chamber. You have to get there."

"I'm on it," Brandon radioed back. He had left the Mayhem Globe in the hands of Kane and the other Junior Air Squad members so he could return with Toby and the rest of the Dragon Riders Club in order to help defend Red Fountain's skies. But now it looked like he was going to have to defend Red Fountain on the ground as well.

"I think the witches headed towards one of the hangers," Sky informed the rest of his group. "We'd better hurry over there since I'm sure Brandon won't be able to hold them off on his own."

"What about Riven?" Flora asked from her place kneeling beside the unconscious teen. She placed a gentle hand on his forehead and although he didn't wake up, the moody youth did flinch a bit and mutter something inaudible.

"I'll take care of him," Bourne volunteered. He was ashamed of the cowardly way he had acted when the witches had attacked them – the memories of the Great Witch Invasion were just to close for him to forget – and he wanted to make up for his mistake.

"You sure?" Sky questioned.

"Yeah. Now go or Brandon might end up in a similar state."

* * *

Brandon's jet arced around the walls of Red Fountain, searching for any sign of the Trix Sisters. He had commanded Toby and the other dragon riders to do the same, but so far they hadn't seen so much as a glimpse of any of them.

"Well, as Timmy might say; when in doubt, trust technology," Brandon said to himself, bringing up the thermal imagining screen. It would be impossible to track anyone inside the school on body heat alone since there were so many people on the school grounds, so he coupled the heat seeking technology with one that tracked black magic, and instantly three individual figures appeared on the screen. "Gotcha."

Brandon had been accused from time to time as being a bit of a show off, and this was one of the times when Brandon just might agree with such rumours, but that wasn't going to stop him from having a little fun. Climbing out onto the outside of his jet, Brandon extended his broad sword and waited for the hatch to one of Red Fountain ship hangers to open, and when it did, he found the three witches he was looking for hovering on the other side.

"Do you have a hall pass young ladies?" Brandon asked jestingly. Jumping off his jet, Brandon landed gracefully in the hanger, ready for a fight.

"Yeah, sure," Darcy spat, gathering her dark magic. "Here's my hall pass."

'Uh-oh,' Brandon thought to himself as he watched Darcy multiplies herself. He had seen Darcy double herself a few times, so he knew that her clones were just as vindictive as the original. The multiple Darcy's swarmed in and surrounded the squire, instantly putting him at a disadvantage. In a mixture of bravery and desperation, Brandon swung at one of them but they easily avoided it and floated higher.

Darcy laughed cruelly. "Cloud of Darkness!"

Brandon shuttered as a cloud of pure blackness descended upon him. A chilling dread and a fear similar to the one you get when you think you hear something go bump in the middle of the night gripped him and he – Brandon the Joker – couldn't manage to raise a cheery thought. Despite his blindness, Brandon tried to block the attack he knew Darcy would be making, but she had the advantage here and she was going to use it. As the dark cloud thinned, Brandon collapsed onto the ground. Grinning, Darcy cancelled her clones and returned to one sole being. Her victory was short lived but.

"Stop!"

"Huh?" Darcy gasped, looking up to see Prince Sky, some long haired guy she had never seen before, the brainiac, the hippy fairy and of course that damned Bloom come running into the hanger.

"Oh, it my favourite fairy," Icy hissed, her voice dripping with sarcasm and venom.

"Come on girls. Let's go get 'em!" Bloom shouted and with a flash of bright light, the three fairies transformed into their winx form. Even without the other half of the Winx Club, the three of them still looked impressive, especially since they had several Red Fountain specialists backing them up.

Icy, however, remained completely unfazed.

"Alright Stormy, go ahead and show them your new powers," Icy commanded as she and Darcy flew off, leaving their youngest sister behind.

"Oh yeah," Stormy laughed, an insane look on her face. Tecna gathered her powers and attacked the witch, but Stormy managed to dodge it easily. "Watch and learn."

Tenca's attack may have been powerful, but Stormy's was stronger and it was also more accurate. Not only was it powerful enough to send Tecna hurling to the ground but everyone else as well. Ignoring the pain that was throbbing through his body, Helia got to one knee and tried to get her a hold of her with his laser glove, but it fell short as Stormy picked her feet up out of harms way. The witch laughed callously. "Nice try."

Still laughing, the weather witch flew off down into the hallways of Red Fountain.

"Guys! She's heading to the basement!" Helia told the others as he scrambled to his feet. All Red Fountain students knew that the Hall of Justice was located in the lower levels of the new campus, and somewhere below the Hall was the Berrytoss Chamber. Although Helia knew that they needed to go protect the Codex, he was not about to abandon his humanitarian ideals which is why he ran over to check on Tecna. "You okay?"

The digital fairy nodded so Helia quickly observed the rest of the injured. Brandon was slowly crawling to his hands and knees and several other specialists were still lying on the ground, breathing heavily. All the electricity in the air had really knocked them for a loop. But not everyone was going to let their suffering get in the way of kicking those witches' butts.

"Come on!" Sky shouted and he, Flora and Bloom headed off down the hallway that Stormy had vanished down.

"Brandon. You okay?" Helia asked, kneeling down beside the squire.

"Y-Yeah. 'M fine," Brandon assured him, but his voice and his body were shaking. Darcy's attack had left him feeling cold and weak, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. "I gotta go help protect . . .I gotta 'elp Sky and . . ."

"Just take it easy," Helia advised. "You're in no shape to go after the Trix now. We'd better get you to the medic."

"Nah. 'M fine. 'M fine," Brandon said again, trying to get up but when his strength gave out, the squire sunk back to the ground without a fight. "On second thoughts, I think I'll just lay here for a little bit."

"I'm going to go after the others," Tecna said, fluttering slightly above the ground. She still looked a bit shaken up from Stormy's lightning attack, but the boys knew better than to argue with her about something like this.

"Alright. I'll catch up with you as soon as I can," Helia nodded, watching as Tecna flew off after the others while he tended to the injured. But Helia was distracted. He might not have any desire to fight the witches, but he did have a need to make sure that a certain green eyed fairy was okay.

* * *

"Hey, does Helia go to Red Fountain now?"

Sky didn't need to look back over his shoulder at the two fairies flying behind him to know that there was an element of eagerness in Flora's green eyes. "Yeah, Saladin got him to transfer in."

"Did you hear that Bloom?" Flora whispered to Bloom as they flew. "Helia's attending Red Fountain now. He's staying in Magix!"

"Yeah," Bloom said, forcing a smile. She tried to be happy for her friend, but every time she looked at the blonde prince running down the corridor, her gloomy mood descended down upon her again.

"Guys!" Tecna called, catching up to them. "Where are the witches?"

"We're getting to them," Sky assured her as the elevators came into view. "Here we are." Gritting his teeth, Sky managed to pry the elevator doors open. He could see the actual lift stuck above him, but there was still the cable and he wasn't going to let the Trix steal anything from his school. Jumping out into thin air, Sky grabbed hold of the cable and let gravity drag him down, knowing that the fairies would follow him with their wings. "This is my short cut!"

The doors were open at the bottom, allowing Sky to swing out onto solid ground with the fairies close behind him. They weren't at the Hall of Justice yet, but they were on the right level which meant that the Trix knew exactly where the Berrytoss Chamber was located.

Sky instantly spotted Stormy, who was heading for the corridor that led directly to the Hall of Justice. "She's down there!"

"Come on! Let's get her!" Flora said, gathering her powers. "Venus Blast!"

"Lightning Rage!" Stormy countered. The witch's power was too strong for Flora's attack, and once it blasted through the flower magic, Stormy went on to fire another attack that hit Flora square in the stomach. The Flower Fairy was thrown backwards and collapsed in a heap on the ground. Without a backwards glance at the defeated fairy, Stormy flew off toward the Hall of Justice.

"Are you okay?" Bloom asked, her eyes wide and panicked.

"I'll be fine," Flora assured them, but she made no effort to get up. "I'll catch up with you."

Bloom looked for a second as if she was going to protest, but she knew that the Trix needed to be stopped. "Alright," she finally agreed, before looking at Tecna and Sky. "Let's go and stop them."

"So this Codex is pretty important, huh?" Sky asked as he ran. The others had filled him in on the Codex while they were in the elevator, but it was only a very short elevator trip so it had been a very brief explanation.

"Codatorta seemed to think so," Tecna said. "Are the Elite Guards watching the Berrytoss Chamber?"

"Yeah, they are but with the witches new powers they don't stand a chance," Sky pointed out to her. Those Gloomix that Darkar given the Trix had a frightening amount of power, and that power coupled with their cruel nature it made up a terrifying mixture. And if what the others had said about the Codex being the key to some Ultimate Power, they needed to keep it away from the Trix at all costs. Sky was so caught up about getting to the Berrytoss Chamber in order to stop the Trix that he didn't notice the sad way Bloom watched him as she flew.

* * *

"Is that really necessary?" Helia asked, watching as the drug Doc had just made Brandon inhale quickly took affect. The squire's brown eyes suddenly became distant and a dreamy expression crossed his face before his eyelids drooped and he slipped easily into a deep, trouble-free sleep.

"Unfortunately, yes," Doc informed the pacifist as he slowly lowered the sleeping Brandon down onto the enchanted stretcher. "Over the years I've found that during battles or Red Alert crises, heroes can become a danger to themselves and to others when they try to continue fighting even though they are obviously unable to do so. I'm quite sure that had I not insisted he rest, Brandon would have run off after the Trix even though he could barely stand after that attack Darcy threw at him. Hell, he could have a limb missing and I'd bet he'd still want to go after them."

"Really?" Helia questioned, staring at the unconscious boy in disbelief. Were heroes really that . . . well . . . insane?

"Yes. His friend Riven kept telling me that he was okay to fight even though he couldn't stand without assistance, he was seeing double and he thought we were fighting the Army of Decay," Doc told Helia in a somewhat casual tone, moving on to examine another one of his patients. "He's now in a similar state to Brandon."

"I was wondering why I hadn't seen him come storming into the hanger looking for the witches."

"It's a bit hard to do that when you're unconscious," Doc said, removing the lid to the small box that housed the doctor's knock out potion and holding it at arms length under the injured boy's nose. "Breathe deep."

"Doc!" a voice called as the boy Doc was treating slipped into an unconscious state. The school physician remained focused on his patient but Helia looked to where to voice had come from to see Timmy running towards them. The teenage genius froze and his eyes widened when he saw the still forms of Brandon and the boy Doc was treating. "A-Are they . . ."

"Perfectly fine? Yes. Brandon just needs a little bit of sleep to allow his strength to return and this one here just needs some treatment for shock," Doc informed the teen, and after a moments thought he continued on saying, "Actually I really didn't need to knock him out for that. Oh well. Keeps them quiet. Anyway I take it you've just come from Codatorta, Timmy. Any news?"

"The Mayhem Globe has been destroyed thanks to the Junior Air Squad, but the Trix have managed to shut down all of the schools lifts and communications. Everyone in the school is stuck," Timmy reported. "Where are Sky and the girls?"

"They went after the witches," Helia answered, pointing in the direction they had gone.

"I'm going after them."

"Not on your own you're not," Doc said sternly, checking the pupils of the boy he was treating. "Helia, go with him."

"What?" Helia exclaimed before he could stop himself and he had a feeling that Timmy was thinking the same thing. "And what do you expect me to do?"

"You go to Red Fountain now, don't you?" Doc questioned, still not taking his eyes off his patient. "Just make sure Timmy doesn't get killed on the way. I've got enough to deal with today."

"C'mon Helia," Timmy said, running off before Helia could protest.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Helia sighed with a shake of his head, but he started running after Timmy regardless.

The pair ran in silence down the corridor that Sky and the girls had last been seen running down. It was easy to guess which route they took since all the automatic doors had locked when Stormy had short circuited the schools system, but eventually they came to the end of the hallway, and the only clue to where Sky had gone was an open elevator shaft.

"I bet you they went down there. C'mon!" Timmy shouted, jumping out and grabbing hold of the elevator cable and started sliding down. After a second's hesitation, Helia followed after him. They sure as hell didn't have anything like this at Ossacip Art School. Once they reached the bottom, Timmy started running towards the direction he was sure they had gone. "The Berrytoss Chamber is this way. The witches have to be there."

Helia was just about to follow him when he suddenly saw something that made him forget all about oddly named chambers and witches. Skidding to a stop, Helia stared at the fairy sitting on the floor, his cobalt eyes wide with worry. "Flora?"

Flora sat alone on the floor with her back leaning up against the wall behind her. Her arms were wrapped around her stomach and her head was hung low, but at the sound of her name she looked up and her own eyes widened when she saw who had addressed her. "Helia?"

"Flora! Are you alright? What happened?" Helia asked, running over and dropping to his knees behind her. Boldly taking her hand in his, Helia stared into her green eyes, trying to find any evidence that she was hurt.

"I'm fine," Flora assured him, flushing slightly at the unexpected contact. "I-I just . . . Stormy she . . . I'm fine."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Timmy asked, and even though Flora could be seriously hurt, he couldn't help feeling like somewhat of a third wheel.

"I'm fine," Flora said again. "But the others . . . they can't face the Trix alone."

"Go," Helia told Timmy, who was staring off in the direction of the Berrytoss Chamber. "I'll stay with Flora."

Timmy looked hesitant. He didn't like the idea of running out on Flora like that, but Tecna and the others might really need him right now. "You sure?"

"Yeah. Now go!"

Not needing any further encouragement, Timmy turned and bolted towards the Hall of Justice, leaving the two gentle souls behind him.

* * *

"It's so cold all of a sudden," Bloom shivered as she fluttered as silently as she could behind Sky. The prince had all his concentration focused on treading as quietly as he could as he neared the Hall of Justice, but he still noted to himself that Bloom was right. Despite the fact that it was a warm day and he had been running flat out ever since the Trix had first attacked the school, Sky's skin was suddenly covered in goose-bumps and his breath was clouding in front of him. And no one had any doubts of who was behind it.

Standing in front of the Scales of Justice with all the meekness of an irritated cobra was Icy. All around the room were Red Fountain's Elite Guard but Icy had moved on from entertaining herself by encasing them in huge blocks of ice and was now focusing on getting past the Scales and into the Berrytoss Chamber. And for some reason, the Trix had figured that they would use a feather to achieve that.

"Do it. Now, Darcy!" Icy commanded, holding out the feather to a hesitant looking Darcy. Slowly, as if she was accepting the feather off someone with the plague, Darcy took it from her, but before she could place it into the empty side of the Scales, Sky's blue boomerang flew in between the two of them before arcing and embedding itself into pillar not far from Icy's head. The witches all jumped and turned to see Sky, flanked by Bloom and Tecna, standing at the entrance to the Hall of Justice.

"Alright! Step away!" Sky ordered in as intimidating and commanding voice as he could muster, but it didn't faze the witches. They had plans for universal domination, so they sure as hell weren't going to let themselves get daunted by a high school boy.

"Back for more humiliation?" Icy asked calmly, as if she had never been defeated by the same fairies and hero the year before. Her casual persona continued even when Sky, sword in hand, charged her and when he swung his phantom blade at her, she easily jumped above it.

"Huh?" Sky gasped as he felt the air chill as Icy gathered her power for an attack of her own.

"Platinum Icicle!" Icy snarled, a powerful light blue forming in the palm of her hand. At her command, the ball of light flew directly at Tecna's chest, knocking the digital fairy to the ground. As Sky and the fairies were left stunned at the awesome and terrible power of Icy's attack, a deep purple halo surrounded Darcy and she moved in to finish Tecna off.

"Bloom! Try the Griselda Bubble!" Tecna suggested when she saw Bloom move in to try and defend her. Taking her advice, Bloom managed to block Darcy's hypnotic attack with fire shield before responding by conjuring up a fire ball and hurling it at the witch who easily dodges it.

"Let's finish this," Stormy suggested to her sisters, but before she could even muster up a light breeze, a shot from a blaster gun flew at her, just missing her head. "Huh?"

"That was a good one Timmy," Tecna said, grinning at the boy who had just joined the fight.

"That wasn't a good one," Stormy assured her, venom in her voice. "This is a good one!"

With a certain level of insanity in her eyes, the weather witch summoned up a raging tornado that filled the room. The windstorm was so powerful that it managed to blow Bloom, Tecna and Bloom backwards, but Sky managed to hang on. Scrambling to his feet, Sky gave one glance at his friends who now lay in a pile at the other side of the room. Most of them had been knocked senseless from the fall and he wasn't going to let the witches attack them while they were so vulnerable.

"Watch this," Icy grinned at her sisters as Sky ran at her again with his sword, but just like before, she easily avoided his attack. The only difference was that this time, she spelled him with one of her most powerful and wicked attacks. "Full Force Blast!"

Sky felt the breath leave his body as a chilling cold descended down upon him. He could feel himself sinking but he couldn't fight it. All he could do was slip down into a cold, endless sleep.

"Icy, you just put that boy into a hundred year sleep," Darcy grinned.

"Minimum," Icy informed her, turning to ponder the Scales of Justice again. "This is going to take some figuring out. Put a non aggression spell on them Darcy. I don't want them disturbing my concentration."

"Right," Darcy nodded, walking over to the pile of Timmy and the fairies. Raising her gloved hand, Darcy surrounded herself in a deep purple light again and this time her eyes started glow a hypnotic shade a purple. Bloom was beginning to recover from Stormy's cyclone, but she wasn't fast enough to try and block Darcy's spell. "Nighty night."

That's when everything went black.

* * *

"Are you feeling any better?" Helia asked Flora gently. The two teens were leaning against the wall together, sitting so closely that their shoulders and their knees were touching which cause a beautiful shade of pink enter Flora's cheeks. Helia would have loved to be able to replicate the colour with his paints, so he took every opportunity to sneak sideways glances at Flora's face to burn the image to memory and every time her green eyes caught him staring at her, Helia got a strange feeling in his stomach that made he avert his gaze quickly.

"Much better," Flora nodded before smiling warmly at Helia. "Thank you very much for waiting with me."

"It's my pleasure," Helia assured her, holding her gaze this time and returning the smile. "I'm honoured to sit next to the brave fairy who boldly faced one of the dreaded Trix Sisters alone."

"Are you making fun of me?" Flora asked, but it wasn't in an insulted or accusing tone.

"Would I do that?"

"Maybe," Flora answered with a sly little grin. "But I get the feeling that you don't take the Trix seriously."

"To be honest, I really don't," Helia admitted. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm well aware of how terrible they can be. Last year when I was at Ossacip, Vallisto didn't receive news of the attack of the Army of Decay until two days before the final battle, and for two days I sat around waiting to find out whether or not my grandfather and an entire Realm of people had been destroyed with no news what-so-ever. But without the Dragon Fire and the Army of Decay, the Trix are just a bunch of high school drop outs. And what's more is that they're defeated high school drop outs. I sorry but I don't find that too terrifying."

"The Trix may be little more than high school girls and they may be defeated, but that makes them all the more dangerous," Flora pointed out to Helia. "They're all the more desperate for victory now and it was never just the power of the Dragon Fire or the Army of Decay that made them so frightening. It was their ambition and their desire to enslave and destroy the universe. We have to stop them."

"But fighting isn't the answer," Helia quoted his fathers words.

"But neither is sitting back and letting evil go unchecked or challenged," Flora countered gently and for a second Helia was left stunned at the logic and insight her response had been.

"You have an excellent point," Helia congratulated her honestly. "Have you ever considered politics as a career move?"

"Only for environmental conservation," Flora answered, a little embarrassed by Helia's praise. "I am aware of your fathers work and although I agree with a lot of what he says, if any of my friends or my family were in danger I'd fight for them. I have a little sister called Rose back home and if I let the Trix win here, they could go there and hurt her. I can't let that happen."

"Protect the ones you love," Helia said, recalling the belief that so many were driven by and who so many had died for. But right now – sitting there beside Flora – Helia was slowly beginning to understand just how powerful and important a thought like that might be. Spurred by the moment, Helia reached over and brush the back side of his fingers across her cheek and she flushed again at such an intimate action. "You can't quite blame anyone for that."

Flora tried to think of some kind of a response to what Helia had said, but her mind had gone completely blank as she stared into those cobalt eyes. Helia's hand brushed down off her cheek and ended up running itself ever so lightly over her loose hair – an undeniably bold move – but Flora didn't feel insult by it. In fact, it left her wanting more.

"Jasmine," Helia said all of a sudden, making Flora's heart skip a beat.

"P-Pardon?" Flora asked, almost dreading his answer. Jasmine could be his girlfriend back home for all she knew. But when she saw the way he was so tenderly looking at her, Flora found it impossible to believe that his heart belonged to somebody else.

"Your hair smells like jasmine," Helia said. Almost reluctantly, Helia pulled his hand back from contact with her, but his eyes never left hers. Their faces were so very close to one another and Helia subconsciously started to move forward.

"Hello?"

Flora gasped and the two teens instantly jumped apart, increasing the distance between the two of them. Flora brushed a deep crimson and she nervously touched her hair, looking anywhere but at Helia. "Who was that?" she asked.

"I don't know, but it sounds like it came from up here," Helia said, getting to his feet and moving over to the still open elevator shaft. "Hello?"

"Hey! Who's down there?" the voice called back, echoing off the walls of the shaft in the process.

"It's Helia! Who's that?"

"Bourne! I was sent to find you, man! Saladin wants to see you right now!" Bourne shouted down to him from his place several levels up.

"Why?"

"Dunno! Grandfather stuff I think!"

"Dammit," Helia muttered under his breath, looking back at Flora who had now also gotten to her feet.

"He wants you to go now!" Bourne shouted down.

"Okay. Okay. I'll be up in a minute!"

"I'm going to go find Bloom and the others," Flora informed Helia, and he knew that nothing he said would convince her otherwise. "Even if the threat of the Trix has passed, they'd want to know I'm okay."

"Alright," Helia agreed reluctantly. "Be careful."

"I will," Flora assured him, turning to head off towards the Hall of Justice and leaving Helia to climb back up the elevator cable on his own.

* * *

Bloom's eye lids felt like they weighed one ton each as she forced them open. Her mind was groggy from a combination of Stormy and Darcy's spells and in the aftermath of both of them had left a bitter taste in her mouth. Around her, she noticed that Timmy and Tecna were starting to wake up as well. Flora hadn't caught up with them yet and there was no back up from the other Red Fountain boys. And most importantly, the Trix had worked out how to get past the Scales of Justice and had opened the Berrytoss Chamber where Bloom guessed is where the Trix were in that very second.

But none of that really mattered to Bloom when she saw that Sky was lying several feet away from her, and unlike the others, he was making no signs of movement. In fact, he didn't ever look alive.

"Huh? Sky?" Bloom asked and she felt her chest constrict and her heart get seized with fear as he continued to lie dead still. "Sky!"

"Is he alright?" Timmy asked, forcing himself to stand. Bloom had run over to where Sky lay and grabbed his shoulders. Timmy quickly joined her, but he froze when he saw how pale and lifeless the prince looked.

"He's not waking up!" Bloom exclaimed, an obvious note of panic and fear in her voice. "Sky! Please wake up! _Please!_"

Hot, burning tears gathered in Timmy's eyes but he didn't let them fall because instead of grief and hurt gripping him, a terrible, white hot anger and desire for revenge pulsed through his body. Sky was one of his best friends and someone that Timmy respected and loved as a brother. He was a kind, considerate young man who always did his duty and had shown great promise for the future.

And in one attack, Icy had taken all that away.

The Trix had done some pretty horrible things to Timmy and his friends in the past. They had relentlessly attack Tecna and the other members of the Winx Club, they had turned Riven against them, they had destroyed Red Fountain, tried to enslave the universe with the Army of Decay and had been responsible for destroying Timmy's computer during the Great Witch Invasion. But nothing compared to this. Shaking in pure, unbridled rage, Timmy pulled out his blaster gun and headed for the stairs that led down into the Berrytoss Chamber.

From below, the Trix's voices floated up to reach his ears.

"I'm glad you're okay Icy," Stormy was staying as Timmy peered down into the chamber. The three witches were standing together in a circle next to a shattered glass cabinet which Timmy guessed had previously housed Red Fountain's piece of the Codex. Slowly, Timmy raised his gun and took aim at Icy's head.

"Whatever wi-_atch_. I heard what you said," Icy spat, glaring at Stormy. Only at the last second did Timmy remember that she most likely had the Codex – an artefact that the universe couldn't afford to let get destroyed – and that one bit of information was enough to save Icy's life. Shifting his aim slightly to the right, Timmy pulled the trigger on his gun.

"How'd he do that?" Icy demanded, glaring up at the boy who had just tried to shoot her. The blast had ended brushing right by her head, and it had been a little too close for comfort.

"Alright! Don't move!" Timmy ordered, aiming his gun right at Icy's face with the intention to shoot her for real this time. But then, all of a sudden he felt as is a great weight was being forced down upon him, like someone had turned gravity up. Even just breathing seemed to become a great effort.

"Be careful Timmy, we're all under a spell," Tecna reminded him.

"Wake up Sky. You've got to wake up! He's not breathing!" Bloom wailed, her eyes filling with tears which made Icy grin with pure delight as she ascended the stairs of the Berrytoss Chamber. "Sky!"

Timmy's blood ran cold at Bloom's words but he had no time to properly digest the thought when he realized how close Icy was getting to the top of the stairs to where he stood. Focusing back on his gun, Timmy tried desperately to pull the trigger – after all, the witch deserved it – but it suddenly seemed easier to get Brandon to stop doting on Stella than for Timmy to move his index finger a single centimetre. It was enough to make his entire body shake in the effort.

"Don't bother," Icy told him, noticing his struggle. "We put a non aggression spell on you."

"Don't listen to them!" Tecna shouted.

"I'm trying Tec," Timmy said.

"You can't fire that thing," Icy informed Timmy, moving forward and gathering a handful of power in her palm which she aimed directly at the hero blocking her path. "Try it. Try and pull the trigger."

Timmy had grown up in a household with two older sisters who both possessed magic, so he was no stranger to being spelled. He had been spelled into walking into a wall repeatedly for three quarters of an hour by one sister. He had been spelled into eating grass by the other. And he had been spelled by the two of them to be stuck to the ceiling of their living room until their mother caught them, yelled at them and finally grounded them. But every time he got spelled, Timmy had been able to resist the magical commands that were being forced upon him for a couple of minutes before his strength gave out and he ended up slipping under the spell. With Darcy's non aggression spell, however, there was no way to resist it. The spell had been built like a brick wall and the only way Timmy had been able to fire that first shot was that he hadn't had any intentions of hitting and harming Icy. It was no wonder why Darcy was considered such a talented witch, and such a terrible enemy.

Finally, unable to continue fighting it any longer, Timmy lowered his gun in defeat and his head quickly followed. Icy laughed at the shameful looking hero.

"Pathetic. Oh and thanks for the Codex," she tormented, walking passed him without any resistance blocking her. Darcy and Stormy followed right behind her. "Bloom, you may as well dump Sky. He's going to be asleep for a hundred years. At least."

And with that, the Trix Sisters flew off out of the Hall of Justice laughing wickedly, taking with them the first piece of the Codex that would led them to the Ultimate Power.

Timmy had never felt more useless. He had just let the Trix walk straight by him and steal Red Fountain's piece of the Codex for Lord Darkar. He had done nothing when he should have been willing to die than let them take the Codex. That's what Red Fountain Heroes do. They were meant to be willing to give up their life for the sake of their mission and he had failed at the one that had been appointed to him. He knew his friends would tell him later that there was nothing he could have done – what with being spelled and all – but he couldn't help but get the suspicion that even if he wasn't spelled he wouldn't have been able to pull the trigger.

It was an insult to everything Red Fountain stood for and he felt ashamed to even be warning the school's uniform at that very second.

"I'll get help," Tecna said, running off and her voice brought Timmy sharply out of his wallowing with a gasped. He had been so absorbed in his own self pity that he had completely forgotten that that had a bigger emergency on their hands than Timmy's pride.

"Sky," he whispered, moving hesitantly over to where Bloom was, kneeling down beside the disturbingly still Prince Sky. The prince's skin was deathly pale and his chest was no longer rising or falling. Under Bloom's warm hands he felt cold and even though she was shaking him, the blonde showed no sign that he was even aware that she was there.

"Sky?! Can you hear me?! I don't know what to do! He's in some kind of suspended state!" Bloom said to Flora, who had bumped into Tecna just down the hall and had bolted to Bloom's side as soon as the digital fairy had panted out that Sky was in trouble. With cool, calm hands, Flora grabbed one of Sky's arms and placed her fingers on his wrist. Keeping still, the flower fairy searched for a soft thudding against her fingertips that would indicate whether Sky was alive or not. Unfortunately, she couldn't feel anything.

"Oh no, Bloom. He doesn't have a pulse," she blurted out. Later, she reflect on how that was one of the most non sympathetic ways she could have broken that news to Bloom, but right now she was too far into shock to realise it.

"No. H-He can't be," Timmy whispered as Bloom moved around to sit behind Sky, his blonde head cradled in her lap. Timmy started to tremble in pure shock, disbelief and grief. Sky was one of Timmy's nearest and dearest friends. He couldn't be gone. Even if he was just in a suspended state, Icy had said that he would be asleep for at least a hundred years so unless all of them lived to an exceptionally old age, Sky would never see them again. He'd wake up in a world unlike the one he had grown up with and he would be without his friends, his family and, most importantly, without Bloom.

'That's more cruel than killing him,' Timmy thought bitterly to himself, looking over at the red haired fairy that was currently stroking Sky's blonde hair and staring down into his lifeless face.

"This can't be happening," Bloom said in a wavering voice. "I am not going to let him go. Wake up Sky."

Tecna moved over to the group and Timmy could tell from the look on her face that she wanted to point out to Bloom how illogical it would be for Sky to suddenly wake up just because she begged him too – especially when considering that Icy had spelled him using her deadly new powers that had been amplified by her Gloomix – but her words died on her lips when she saw how heartbroken Bloom looked.

"I need you," Bloom confessed, her eyes spilling over and tears started to flow freely down her cheeks. "I really, really do. Please Sky."

And then, from deep down within her, Bloom felt a power that she never even knew she had start to flame up.

* * *

Sky was cold.

It wasn't just a slight chill from the ambient temperature, but more a deep, terrible cold that reached down into the very centre of his soul and drowned out all former thoughts of hope. For what felt like a lifetime, Sky tried to search for a way out of the cold, but no matter where he turned, the coldness and the darkness followed him.

'So tired,' Sky thought to himself sleepily, but in the place of endless night and winter he could find no rest. There was always something deep down within himself that troubled him. Something that was screaming out that this wasn't right but every time Sky tried to concentrate on it to try and figure out what was so wrong, the thought slipped through his grasp like a vague dream.

Time passed. How much time, Sky couldn't measure. Each second seemed as long as the life age of a planet and yet at the same time travelled as fast as light. And all the while, the darkness, the cold and the uneasy feeling that something was wrong surrounded Sky.

And then, out of the blackness, came whispers.

At first Sky couldn't understand the words that were being said, but the voice that spoke them was pleasing to hear and for some reason they seemed to carry a warmth with them that brushed lightly over Sky's soul that made him focus to try and catch the words.

_Wake up Sky . ._ .

Struggling to keep the darkness and the cold from seeping in again, Sky tried to grasp hold of the words and the warmth they gave, but it was like grabbing at smoke and Sky soon felt as though he was going under to a place where he would continue to drown and fall forever.

_I need you . . . I really, really do . . . Please . . . _

The bitter coldness that had flooded through Sky's soul was turning him numb and the endless black was blurring his senses and absorbing his memories of life outside of the dark. Silently screaming, Sky slipped further and further away from the words and the wonderful warmth they gave off.

_Sky . . ._

Then, like a sudden sunrise, a wave of loving warmth washed over him, making his soul light and his head swim. The darkness and the cold tried desperately to cling to him but the heat and a soft, red light evaporated them away.

_Come back to me . . . _

With a gasp, Sky opened his eyes. The light stung after being imprisoned in pure blackness but as soon as his vision cleared, Sky saw the familiar faces of Timmy, Tecna and Flora staring down at him. Each of them wore expressions of unbridled happiness and relief on their faces, but for what reason he couldn't say.

And what Timmy said next only confused him further. "You saved him Bloom."

"Thank goodness Sky. We thought we lost you," Flora said. Sky was just about to ask her what she was talking about when he felt more than saw someone collapse just behind his head. Sitting up as quickly as his weak body would allow, Sky turned to see his beloved Bloom lying on the ground just behind him. It had been her face he had looked for when he had opened his eyes and he was alarmed to find her in such an exhausted state.

"Bloom?" he questioned hesitantly. The Last Princess of Sparx slowly sat up, using her arms to support her upper body. She looked completely drained and her entire body was shaking in weakness but despite the fact that she had tears in her eyes she smiled loving at the boy she had thought only a matter of seconds ago that she had lost forever. When Sky returned the smile it gave Bloom a boost of energy that she didn't know she had and, with a joyful laugh launched herself at him and threw her arms around his shoulders to hug him tightly, which he eagerly returned. "You're awesome."

Bloom giggled and pulled back a bit to stare into Sky's blue eyes. The prince was still a little confused about everything that had happened since Icy's last attack, but if there was one thing he remembered it was that he had asked Bloom to come to Red Fountain for a reason and Sky was going to ask her before anymore Mayhem Globes or psychotic witches show up again and ruin it.

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

Before Sky could even begin to get nervous, a wide and somewhat relieved smile spread across Bloom's beautiful and tearstained face, making the prince's heart sore in a way that he had never thought possible. "Of course I will."

Embracing her again, Sky held her tightly against him, letting the warmth from her body and from the knowledge that she wanted to be with him and only him seep into him. It didn't matter that Icy had almost put him in a hundred year deep sleep or that Darkar was one step closer to obtaining to Ultimate Power. As long as he had Bloom as his girl, everything would be fine. "Thank you."

* * *

_What a lame thing to say to a girl after she agrees to be your girlfriend. I dunno, it just sounds weird to me._

_(1) Every student in history knows how awful that silence is _

_(2) The actual line is "Er, hey. I just wanted to confirm that I'll see you tomorrow" but obviously the continuity was off so I had to change it _

_(3) I feel sorry for all the students who go to Red Fountain and Cloud Tower because their schools get attacked all the bloody time. Red Fountain got hit by a Lio Dragerus, a Mayhem Globe, twisters in season 3 and gets destroyed in the Great Witch Invasion. Cloud Tower get attacked by the Trix, get flooded and disappears in season 3 and gets taken over by Baltor once and the Trix on three separate occasions. Compare that to Alfea who loses a tower in the Great Witch Invasion and suffers an attack by zombie witches and fire in season 3. It's really not that fair _

_(4) Don't you find it odd that the Winx Club and specialist were never actually told about the Codex and Ultimate Power in the show? In fact, with the exception of Layla, no of them actually see what Lord Darkar looks like until the episode Desperately Seeking Bloom_

_(5) The whole Lex getting his hair spelled came about simply because I had no one to fit the description of the guy who threw Riven his sabre _

_(6) The next time you see this episode, watch they guy that runs up the stairs with Riven (who I called Bourne) run away. It's quite funny when you consider that this guy's supposed to be a hero_

_My god, are your eyes still working after all that? That's a long chapter, ay? A lot of material to get through but hopefully it was worth it. We laughed, we cried and we got to watch Helia crack onto Flora. I like Helia, he's got a bit more guts when it comes to girls._

_And a word of warning, that's not the longest chapter I have in this story, nope, nope, nope. TBC._


	11. Homesick

_Let's just jump right into it, shall we?_

_

* * *

_**Chapter Eleven – Homesick **

"Do you know that if you didn't have a sense of smell, apples, onions and potatoes would all taste exactly the same?" Brandon said as he and Sky slid into their seats for Javelin's class.

"What are you going on about?" Sky demanded to know.

"Apples, onions and potatoes; apparently it's just their smell which makes them taste different (1)," Brandon told his prince.

"Where did you hear that nonsense?"

"Dave was telling me, and I talked to Jacob about it and he says that cooking is really only ten percent taste. It's mostly sight and smell that determine what a food taste like (2). Jacob could serve us up medical waste and we'd probably eat it provided he made it look and smell good."

"I think I'm going to skip lunch today."

"And how else do you explain how hypnotists can make a person eat an onion when they tell 'em it's an apple? It's because all they're doing is disabling their sense of smell."

"Even if I said I no longer have any interest in what you're saying, you're still going to keep talking, aren't you?"

"Is he still going on about apples, onions and potatoes?" Timmy asked, sitting down on the other side of Sky.

"He just won't shut up sometimes," Sky noted bitterly. "He just goes on and on and on until you want to hit yourself over the head with something blunt and hard. I think he runs on watch batteries and god knows how long they're going to last."

"You do know I can hear you?" Brandon snapped.

"And yet you still don't stop talking to me about things I couldn't care less about," Sky pointed out. "Seriously, is it too much to ask for a little bit of conversation about issues that actually matter and not just the random drabble that comes out of absolutely nowhere, which seems to always happen with us?"

_Slam!!_

All three boys jumped violently as a heavy text book on battle tactics and strategies was dropped down onto Sky's desk with unnecessary force. Looking up with startled eyes, they discovered an irritated Riven standing in front of Sky's desk with his arms folding across his chest, glaring at the prince with blazing eyes.

"You're bloody dragon knocked my one up," Riven snarled in a tone of voice that indicated that he was placing the blame solely on Sky.

"What?" Sky asked, not following a word Riven was saying. "They got in a fight?"

"No you retard. Rouge is in foal and the stallion she mated with was Cerulean," Riven informed them all, and just by looking at his face they could all tell that their burgundy haired friend was not impressed with this new union.

"Are they sure?" Timmy asked. Since dragons were reptiles, it was often hard to determine whether or not a female was with foal. It wasn't uncommon for no one even know the mare was pregnant until halfway through an eleven months gestation period when she laid an egg

"Well the egg in her stall is a bit of a give away."

"You're kidding?" Brandon exclaimed, looking slightly amused about the whole situation.

"Shannon didn't even see it coming," Riven added, referring to Red Fountain's Stable Master who was normally very selective about his dragons breeding, so for him to miss something like this was massive.

"But Rouge's only just reached full maturity last year," Timmy noted. "Isn't that a little young for her to be breeding?"

Riven nodded curtly. "Yeah, she's a whore and Cerulean's a cradle snatcher."

"Wouldn't that be called an egg snatcher?" Brandon questioned.

"Shut up! I'm pissed off at your prince right now but that can easily be redirected at you, squire."

"Why you pissed at me?" Sky asked.

"Cerulean's you're dragon, ain't he, so I get to blame you."

"How do you figure that?"

"Well I'm not gonna take it up with Cerulean, now am I?"

"I'd pay to see that," Brandon grinned. "And strictly speaking, Cerulean's Red Fountain's dragon, not Sky's. Sky's just working with him while we're here."

"If you don't shut up, I'm going to shove this book down you're throat," Riven threatened, picking up the text book he had dropped on Sky's desk. Brandon wisely decided to shut his mouth at that point, which caused Sky to pull a sour expression.

"How come he never listens to me?" Sky asked no one in particular.

It was at that point that Javelin decided to start his lesson. Putting aside the text he had been taking notes from when his students had entered his classroom, Javelin moved to the front of the class and gave the silent command for everyone to find their seats and be silent which everyone complied to.

"Today you will all be receiving you're final assignment in Battle Tactics and Strategy. This assessment is to be done individually and it will make up forty percent of your final mark for this class, so yes, it does matter. The objective is to plan and organize a mission that would benefit society. It's all theory work, but I want it to be as practical and realistic as possible. So when you pick your enemy and the location of where you're going to stage your mission, I want to see evidence of research put into it. You get to choose whatever enemy you want, but for security reasons you are not allowed to target royalty or world leaders even if it is all hypothetical," Javelin explained evenly.

"Well there goes my idea," Riven commented when his plan of targeting Stella just for the fun of it went out the window.

"As if I'd let you target my girlfriend anyway," Brandon snapped, reading Riven's mind.

"Just pick something else that annoys you," Sky suggested before realising that that might not be an easy thing for his moody friend to do.

"What? Like the hosts on that morning show on Channel 7, Sunrise? I can't stand them (3)."

"I dare you to do your assignment on Sunrise," Brandon challenged with a laugh. "I _dare_ ya."

"Gentlemen, that's enough," Javelin ordered and silence suddenly resumed itself again. "There are several topics you are going to have to include in your mission briefing and they're all explained on this assessment notification I'm handing out now. You can use this lesson to start work on it now but after that you'll be expected to complete it in your own time. Now get to work."

Brandon loved it whenever they allowed in class time to work on assessments. Not because it gave him a chance to work on his assignments without cutting into his social life, but because it meant that he had a whole period of not having to take any notes. He'd scribble a few things down regarding the work he was supposed to be focusing on, but once he had done that he was free to just waste the period away by talking to his classmates. Timmy and Sky – always the ideal students – never missed an opportunity to improve their assignments and Riven really wasn't much of a conversationalist, so Brandon moved off to chat with some of the other boys in his class.

"So anyway, you know that guy Jamie in the grade above us that you were supposed to face off against during the unveiling of the new campus?" Sally said, his work spread out in front of him utterly forgotten.

"The one who turns into a total sap when he gets a girlfriend and who had a massive hissy fit when his girlfriend left him for another guy two years ago?" Brandon asked.

"Yes. Well, he's got himself another girlfriend that he spoils revoltingly, but she has been seen meeting up with his roommate, Danny, in Magix on Thursdays when Jamie had his extension battle history class."

"No way."

"Yes way, and Danny's always on the phone with someone but he won't answer it when Jamie's around," Sally went on. "And then, like a fortnight ago, Jamie went home for the weekend and his girlfriend came over here and she and Danny spent the whole day in Jamie and Danny's room."

"Doing what?"

"No one knows exactly but as you can guess there's speculation."

"Does Jamie know?"

"Who knows?"

"How do you find out about this stuff?"

"It's a gift," Sally shrugged before glancing over at the boy sitting next to him. "And if Jared would just embrace it, we'd have a much better student newspaper."

"I've been through this before; I can't publish what you tell me" Jared told Sally again who simply rolled his eyes. "It's not real journalism."

"It's what the people want."

"It's slander."

"Whatever."

"What are you up too?" Brandon asked Jared, looking over at all the papers that littered the golden eyed boy's desk. Half of the papers related to the current assignment that he was supposed to be working on while the rest were articles for the upcoming edition of the school newspaper, the Red Fountain Sentry, that needed to be proof read, and Jared was trying to deal with both at the same time.

"Multitasking," Jared sighed tragically, scratching the back of his head.

"I thought only women could do that."

"I think they might be right," Jared confessed when he realized that he had jotted down a note on possible surveillance techniques for his assignment on the piece of paper that Jacob had given him with next weeks lunch menu on it. "I'm just a bit frazzled at the moment."

"Editor getting to be too much?" Brandon asked. Jared had been writing for the Sentry ever since their freshmen year and had recently taken over the role of editor after the last editor graduated. It took up a lot of Jared's time, but he was usually pretty good at time management and he was getting a ton of extra curricular credit out of it.

"No. I just went home last weekend when I really should have stayed here to get some work done is all. I just need to put a few hours in and get on top of things. It's just a matter of getting it all done by my deadline. I guess all I gotta do is proof read these articles, work the lay out, write my own article and get all my homework done. That's not that much really, although I still have no idea what I'm going to write about for my article. I'm gonna be the first editor in the history of a paper to give myself a demerit on extra curricular activities for not handing in my article on time. Maybe there's a story in that."

"Yeah, but as soon as you write it and hand it in, it won't be a story any more," Brandon pointed out.

"Oh yeah."

"You can always write about how Danny's stabbing his roommate in the back," Sally offered.

"No," Jared responded firmly.

"Just write about what the guys wonna read about; girls, girls, girl," Brandon suggested.

"And how do I do that without Saladin censoring everything out of it?"

"Just say that you're writing an article on what it's like to be at student at Alfea, and if maps to the girls' showers somehow magically find their way into your report, so be it."

"Actually, that's not such a bad idea" Jared mused, before quickly adding, "The story I mean, not the maps. We've done reports on Alfea before but that was always when something big happened like when Stella blew up the potion lab. We've never actually done a basic, 'a day in the life of an Alfea student' story. It's not exactly front page material, but it's something. Thanks Brandon."

"Anytime. Hey, Stella's coming around after classes this afternoon to hang out. You could talk to her then about maybe arranging a possible interview."

"That'd be great," Jared said with a somewhat relieved grin. He quickly returned to his work when a shadow fell across his desk and Brandon looked up to see Javelin standing in front of them.

"Are you boys doing any work?" Javelin asked them, his clam, quiet voice laced with the slightest trace of steel that the students knew wasn't to be tested.

"We're getting work done," Brandon assured him and that was true to a degree.

"Does it relate to this class?"

"It relates to the people in this class."

"Brandon."

"Sir?"

"Go sit back in your own seat and do your work."

"Yes sir."

* * *

Jared found Stella before Brandon did that afternoon and the squire had to search Red Fountain for an hour before he found his girlfriend and the journalist sitting in the mess hall talking about something that had Stella almost crying in laughter. Brandon grinned widely just at the sound of the princesses giggles and her eyes shone brightly as he approached the pair.

"Oh, Brandon," Stella gasped with a wide smile, clutching her sides which were aching from her laughter. "Have you heard the story about Lex getting trashed and falling asleep in his wardrobe?"

"Yeah, I've seen the photos too," Brandon smirked. "Riven woke up the next morning next to the can machine. Neither of them have any idea what happened that night. They still have no clue how they got home."

"I have a feeling Dominique had something to do with it, but she doesn't remember it," Jared told them. "I think she got just as drunk as they did."

"And that's why I don't party with witches. Sometimes you never know what happens with them," Stella grinned before sighing deeply. "I've forgotten how much fun you are Jared. After my Snookums and his friends who I know pretty well, you're probably my favourite hero at Red Fountain."

"Well, thanks," Jared flushed bashfully, making Brandon chuckle at his classmates embarrassment.

"I mean, you're smart, your brave and you're so not a goon like most of the meat heads here. Do you have a girlfriend?" Stella asked suddenly.

"Why? Are you thinking of asking him out on a date?" Brandon grinned. He knew Jared was no risk to him, so he felt fine about joking about something like this, especially since it made Jared get even more flustered.

"Maybe I would if only I didn't have such a handsome boyfriend," Stella winked at Brandon. "But perhaps I could set him up with one of my friends?"

"What?" Brandon blinked. Who could she possibly think she could set Jared up with? The only member of the Winx Club who wasn't involved with someone – or almost involved with someone – was Layla, and Brandon would be afraid of the aquatic fairy snapping the aspiring journalist in half if Stella ever dared to set them up on a date. Jared was a pretty good hero, but there was no denying that he sometimes lacked the boldness and drive that was the difference between a pretty good hero and an exceptional hero.

"Yeah. He's cute, funny, smart, talented," Stella checked off, ignoring the boys to some degree. "Let's face it Jared, you'd be a real catch to any girl, which you'd need to be to be worthy of my friends. After all, I can't set a Winx Club member up with just anyone."

"But I thought most of your friends already had boyfriends," Jared cut through Stella's musing.

"No. Strictly speaking only Bloom and I are spoken for," Stella informed him with a proud flick of her hair.

"Nah-uh," Brandon disagreed.

"Yah-huh. Neither Tecna, Musa or Flora have been asked out on a single date let alone made it exclusive with anyone, so technically they're still on the market."

"They're not a piece of meat, Stell," Brandon felt he should remind her.

"I know, now shush," Stella ordered with a casual dismissive wave of her hand that Brandon found to be rather insulting. "Where were we? Ah yes, my friends. You know my friends, don't you Jared?"

"Only by reputation," Jared replied. Everyone in Magix at least knew the names of the member of the Winx Club after what happened with the Trix last year. Plus Jared had written a bit of a recount of the Great Witch Invasion that ended up being published in his local paper over the summer, so naturally he had done his research on all the key players in the battle.

"Well, we'll have to fix that, now won't we," Stella grinned with a glint in her eyes that she usually only got when someone agreed to a makeover.

"Stella, I'm really quite flattered but I'm not sure I feel comfortable – " Jared started but Stella quickly cut him off.

"Oh don't worry about it. I'm like a pro at this. I was the one who set Bloom and Sky up and look how happy they are now."

"Um, actually, you just invited me and my friends to come and try and convince her to go to Alfea. There was no intention for a set up," Brandon pointed out and Stella shot him a filthy look.

"Yeah, but if the witches weren't after _my_ Ring of Solaria, then Knut never would have come after me and he would have never brought along a hunter troll for Sky to take down and look all heroic in front of Bloom, thus making her totally smitten."

"Wasn't it Timmy who ended up taking down the hunter troll?"

"Brandon, shush," Stella told him sharply, causing Brandon's hackle to rise up. Only his mother talked to him that way, and even then he didn't like it.

"Look guys, I'm gonna have to get going," Jared told them, getting to his feet with a loud scrap of the chair leg on the floor tiles. "I gotta try and get some headway on that assignment Javelin gave us before I can start to think about this article."

"I'll call you later about the interview and maybe something more," Stella called after him.

"Stella, you can't just go messing around with people lives like that," Brandon told his girlfriend as soon as Jared was out of sight. "People don't appreciate it as much as you might think."

"Oh of course they appreciate it, Brandon. I'm like an expert on all the rules and etiquette when it comes to dating so I know what to look for in a guy. And Jared's a sweet, understanding guy who any girl would be lucky to have as a boyfriend, so why can't I arrange it so that that lucky girl happens to be one of my friends?"

"Because people should be able to make they own decisions on who they want to date, not just have it set up by someone. It didn't work for Sky and Diaspro and I'm pretty sure it's not going to work for Jared and any of your friends."

"But how do you know that until you try? Sky probably would have gone on and married Diaspro if we hadn't introduced him to Bloom, and you can't deny that he's so much happier because of it. Jared could be a Bloom for all we know. All we have to do is figure out who he's best suited with."

"Stella, I don't think you're listening to what I'm saying."

"Now I like Helia so I don't want to try and bust any chances for him and Flora, and Layla's reckons she's not looking for a man which I don't believe by the way. If the right guy happened to come along I think she'd change her tune real quick," Stella ranted before her honey gold eyes widened. "Oh my god, I've got it. Musa! They'd be so perfect for one another!"

"Musa?" Brandon repeated sceptically.

"Totally. I think they'd make a good couple."

"Yeah, they can be one of those cute couples who look like brother and sister (4)," Brandon spat back sarcastically and Stella's expression turned hard.

"You know what, I should probably get going. I got a paper for Wizgiz due in by the end of the week and I haven't spent much time on if," Stella said with a slightly forced smile. Leaning over, she gave Brandon a quick peck on the cheek before getting to her feet. "I'll call you later?"

"Stell," Brandon tried to stop her but she was already gone, and Brandon started to seethe. There was no paper for Wizgiz, or if there was Stella wouldn't mind ignoring it. When he had arranged for her to come around that afternoon she had assured him that her schedule was completely free and she was up for anything, and now she was dogging him for homework? Nah-uh. She just didn't want to listen to him any more. She never listened to him. "Dammit!"

* * *

Riven may be training to be a hero, but he would always be a thief first.

At the age of six he had be forced to survive by picking pockets of unsuspecting individuals and once he had gotten that well mastered, he naturally moved on to other forms of crime, namely breaking and entering. It had started as the typical smash and grab kind of jobs, but then he met a man who had turned his thieving from a random pilfering job to something that was more thought out and professional. Riven was sure that his friends weren't aware of how extensive his career in the world of crime actually was, but the truth of the matter was that Riven had been a part of several large scale operations.

As part of his conditions of his enrolment at Red Fountain, Riven had swore that he would no longer take part in anything illegal, but every now and then, his hands started to itch.

"Dammit!" Riven hissed, throwing the clothes he had in his hands to the ground. He had officially trashed his side of the room he shared with Kane and Bourne, but it had done nothing to relieve the tension that was building up in his body. He had ways to keep his hands busy – biting his nails, fiddling with coins and pens etc. – and right now he was looking for the one thing that always work for him in the past; a typical, ordinary padlock which Riven would challenge his lock picking skills on.

The only trouble was he couldn't find it.

Standing before his torn apart bed with his belongs strewn all around him, Riven crewed on an already painfully short fingernail as he tried to figure out what he was going to do next. He knew what he wanted and finally he gave into it. Pulling open his bottom draw, Riven push a spare pair of jeans aside and found a small, cardboard box that held his addiction in physical form.

With the small box and a lighter shoved in his pocket, Riven left his trashed room and headed for a seclude part of the school that every hero with a smoking habit knew about but the teachers hadn't seemed to have found yet.

Apparently there were habits other than thieving that still made Riven itch.

* * *

"Are you feeling okay, man?" Sky asked that night as he watched the squire got through his nightly training routine. Ever since freshmen year, Brandon would throw an extra training session on top of the regular exercise Red Fountain put them through during class in an attempt to give his body a slight advantage. As a result, his side of the room tended to look like a gym instead of a bedroom, and even though his roommates found his extra exercises rather annoy at times – mainly when they were trying to sleep – they also found it to a reliable source to gage what kind of a mood Brandon was in.

"Yeah," Brandon answered swiftly. He then twisted his body and threw his right leg upwards into a high kick in the air. As soon as both his feet were back on the ground, he swung around to face the other direction in order to punch at an invisible enemy. "Why?"

"Oh nothing. You just seem a bit on edge tonight," Sky commented as his best friend continued to throw himself around the room in what looked like a strange combination of martial arts and ballet.

"I'm fine," Brandon assured his, swinging one of his legs around again. This time, however, he misjudged his distance between him and his bedside table and managed to knock all his belongs that were sitting on it to the floor. "Dammit!"

"Calm down. I'm sure everything's fine," Sky said, joining Brandon's efforts to clean up the mess. "After all, I've seen you knock your alarm clock to the ground countless times and it still works."

Brandon didn't say anything as he continued to pick up his belongings including a holographic picture of him and Stella. The picture had retracted itself back into its frame and even when Brandon shook it a few times, he couldn't get it to come out again. Losing patience with it, the squire threw it in the direction of their dorm bin, but only succeeded in hitting the wall next to the bin. "The hologram chip's busted."

Timmy looked away from his computer screen to glance between the squire and the broken holographic photo frame that now lay on the floor next to their bin. "Hologram chips can be easily replaced, you know?"

"Are you sure you're okay?" Sky asked, examining his friend closely.

"Yes, now stop asking me that!" Brandon ordered sharply and after years of knowing the squire, Sky could recognize that this was going to be one of those times when Brandon was going to be moody until he was ready to talk about it, and trying to pressure him into opening up before then would result in an even worse mood.

"Well, if you're sure about that, I'm gonna go have a shower."

"Go ahead. I'm not stopping you," Brandon said, starting his bizarre fitness routine again. Silence filled the room as Sky left and Brandon continued to jump around. Timmy returned his attention back to his computer screen, but when he noticed something irregular, he had to comment on it.

"That's weird. Tecna's blocking my IM," Timmy noted out loud before leaning back in his chair. "She must be studying really hard."

"That or she's just being a girl, Timmy," Brandon told his friend. "Shaking things up. Acting like she's too busy for ya. All just to keep the upper hand and make you give chase."

Timmy suddenly was pretty sure he knew why the Eraklyain was in such a foul mood. "Tecna and I don't play mind games like that. That's not that kind of relationship we have."

"Right, and just out of curiosity, what is your relationship with Tecna exactly?" Brandon asked, stopping his training session to give his friend his full attention.

"We're friends, I guess," Timmy said bashfully, a little embarrassed at how Brandon had just put him on the spot like that. "I mean, we never really slapped a label on it."

"That's my point Timster. You might want to take it to the next level, man. Crank it up," Brandon suggested. After all, if Timmy didn't make a move soon, Stella might arrange to set Tecna up with someone else like she wanted to do with Musa.

Timmy knew that he'd like to take it to the next level with Tecna, but what he didn't know was how to go about doing that. "How does one crank it up exactly?"

"Start by surprising her with a little gift or something," Brandon advised, since the universe was full of material girls. Leaning forward, Brandon proceeded to whisper in Timmy's ear as if he was sharing a big secret. "I hear girls like flowers."

"Flowers?" Timmy repeated as Brandon moved off to try and find the water bottle he had thrown under his bed that afternoon.

"They grow in fields."

"I know what they are," Timmy said sharply. He wasn't an idiot, after all, but he still filed away Brandon's suggestion to use on a later date. Right now, however, Timmy had to focus on another bit of information he had picked up on during the conversation, and this had nothing to do with how to court a girl. "So, what's Stella done to put you in this mood?"

"Huh?" Brandon feigned stupidity.

"Well, Stella came over today and now you're in a feral mood bitching about the mind games girls play. It doesn't take much to put two and two together."

"I wasn't bitching," Brandon said, folding his arms across his chest and glaring at his friend, but Timmy's calm, patience face stared right back at him and it quickly caused Brandon's façade to crumble. "She just so . . . _argh_, I don't know a word to describe it. I'm too irritated to think. She's always right and always knows best – even when she's wrong – which is why she thinks she has the right to dictate other peoples lives and they'll be grateful for it."

"Is this your life or someone else's that we're talking about?" Timmy asked, trying to get Brandon to talk about what was bothering him.

"It's both. I mean, more than half the stuff I use on a daily basis to keep clean is stuff she told me to use. My deodorant, my toothpaste, my shampoo and conditioner, my body wash for crying out loud! It's all stuff she brought for me! It's ridiculous! She's almost as bad as Amentia only she's not as up front about! It's all subtle manipulation and I'm sick of it! Why is it that every time a girl finds a guy she really likes she's got to go out of her way to change him? It just doesn't make sense! And now she wants to set Musa up with Jared because she doesn't think Riven's worthy of her! Isn't that just absurd?"

"Well, um, not really," Timmy said quietly. "She's only looking out for her friend and even you've said yourself that Riven was a jerk to Musa last year so I can see her point."

"See her point? The only point is that Stella's a self-centred, spoiled princess who can't tell the difference between her friends and the dolls she used to play with as a child!" Brandon spat heatedly.

Timmy's eyes widened at Brandon's outburst. "Whoa. That's a bit harsh coming from her boyfriend. You still wonna be her boyfriend, right?"

"I dunno. I guess," Brandon said with a heavy sigh. "It's just sometimes I feel as if she doesn't listen to a word I say or that she even takes me seriously. I bet she didn't treat her other boyfriends like this. You know; the ones that weren't commoners."

"Stella's not like that. She doesn't care that you a squire."

"Yeah, I know she's said that tons of time and yet she never listens to me. Oh, why does she have to be a pain all the time?"

"Because she's a woman," Timmy reminded him jestingly in an attempt to lighten the mood. "But is she seriously going to set Musa up with Jared?"

"She was thinking about it, but I don't think Musa would go for it at all, do you?"

"I don't think so," Timmy agreed. "Musa may deny it, but I'm pretty certain that she maintained her crush on Riven all last year, including the time when he was with Darcy, and if she can still like him after that I can't see why she would suddenly change her mind now when he's starting to clean up his act. And at the same time, Stella might not try anything. She knows you're not keen on the idea, so maybe she'll drop it. I mean, you're her boyfriend. She loves you."

"Yeah, I know," Brandon muttered, sinking down onto his bed. "Maybe you're right, Timmy. Maybe she won't try anything."

A few days later, Jared received a phone call from a certain Princess of Solaria who wished to discuss the possibility of arranging a date with him and one of her friends.

* * *

Helia stretched out his body until he felt his back crack and then return to his previous position of being slouched against pillar with his sketch pad propped on his legs like it would if it was on an easel. Push a strand of hair out of his eyes, Helia lowered the pencil he had gripped in his hand down to the pad and lifted his eyes to the scenery that was before him. A forest stretching as far as the eye could see, and it was all lit by the morning sunrise while the large, clear water of Lake Crysalous sparkled brightly. It was a kind of beauty that only nature could create and it made Helia's poet heart ache.

If it was one thing Ossacip School of Art in the Realm of Vallisto didn't have, it was surroundings like this.

Smiling gently to himself, Helia placed the tip of his pencil to his pad . . .

. . . and then quickly took it way again when a certain voice reached his ears. Holding his pad close to his chest, Helia pressed himself hard up against the pillar, trying to make himself as small as possible as the group of his classmates passed by.

"Father says that the new villa is even grander than our last one," Justin was saying to his lacrosse team-mates as they walked by. Justin was the only son of a very powerful and wealthy duke, something that Justin thought instantly made him better than anyone else. There were some boys at Red Fountain that Justin respected as equals – only those with rank – but he was a complete ass to everyone else. Helia had been spared slightly from any open taunting from Justin and his goons thanks to his relation to Saladin, but he still didn't like nor feel completely accepted by Justin and his crew. Helia knew that they thought he was weak due to his love of art and his views on pacifism, and it was only a matter of time before they came right out and said so, which is why Helia avoided them whenever he could. Plus, he didn't exactly like Justin's arrogant attitude. "It was dreadfully expensive, but I think that our skiing holidays will be greatly improved with the inclusion of the extra sauna and spa. After all, I am not a fan of sharing."

"I hear you, mate," Marcus, a skinny, little, rat-faced looking teen agreed. His family wasn't as rich or as powerful as Justin's, but what he lacked in wealth he made up for with a wicked mind and a callous nature. "Which is why I think we need to hunt down that freshmen who tried sitting at our table this morning. Make an example out of him."

"I agree," Justin nodded. "I've seen that kid around. He looks up to that so called prince, Sky, and the last thing we need is another person like him walking around."

"An' I saw him takin' to that Helia guy," Rowan – a living example of the expression 'all brawn and no brains' – informed them.

"Are you kidding me?" Marcus sneered in disgust. "Man, this kid's asking for it."

"This whole school's asking for it," Justin said. "This place has really gone down hill since the days when may father used to go here. Pacifism. What a joke. I mean, who does that poof think he's fooling? He'll never be a hero."

"Yeah. Now let's go find that freshmen," Marcus suggested with a wicked grin.

It was only after the group had left that Helia released the breath he hasn't even been aware that he was holding. Unfolding himself, Helia glanced in the direction the lacrosse team had just gone and then stared out at the scenery, this time without a smile on his face.

If it was one thing Ossacip School of Art in the Realm of Vallisto didn't have, it was jerks who made you feel like crap even when they weren't aware of it like Justin.

* * *

Timmy was willing to admit that he was not the most confident person around when it came to talking with girls. Despite his close friendship with Brandon, Timmy had failed to develop any skill when it came to making casual conversation or flirting with girls. Hell, he still had trouble with stopping the palms of his hands from sweating

And this incompetence all made painfully clear to Timmy as he sat with Tecna at outdoor café in Magix.

"It quite startling just how much harder this years curriculum is compared to last year," Tecna was saying as Timmy racked his brain for some kind of link between the conversation they were having and the conversation he wanted them to be having. "And it all has to be so precise. Like if you get one syllable wrong it completely changes the spell."

"Yeah, I remember what it was last year like when I first return to Red Fountain after summer break. We had gone from basics in combat and battle tactics to advance strategy in the space of one summer. I mean, I know your subjects are different to ours and all . . . Not that I'm saying that they're not as hard. Or harder. You know, they're . . . they have their own . . . I'm rambling here," Timmy confessed, his stomach churning.

"I've noticed," Tecna said with an encouraging smile.

"Sorry."

"It's alright."

Timmy let out a deep breath and dug his hand into his pocket. "I've been er, think a lot lately Tec and er, I think your computer needs a new heat sync."

"Oh, you got me a present," Tecna noted with a somewhat forced smile. Timmy couldn't help but notice a small glint of disappointment in Tecna's turquoise eyes as she accepted his gift off of him. "Thanks."

"All the latest upgrades are installed so just pop it in and you're good to go," Timmy said in an attempt to talk up his gift, but Tenca's expression didn't change and the tone of her voice didn't put Timmy's mind at ease.

"It's really very nice Timmy."

"Wonna go hook it up?"

"This version isn't compatible with my new OS," Tecna confessed to him with the same kind of trepidation people get when they have to remove a band-aid. "I'm sorry about that."

"Oh," was all Timmy could come up with for a reply. He should have gone with Brandon's suggestion of flowers. His mind going a mile a minute, Timmy tried desperately to think of a way to salvage this conversation.

'_This is ridiculous_,' Timmy thought heatedly to himself. '_Just do it already_.'

"Speaking of compatibility," Timmy started as soon as he had worked up the nerve and Tecna expression instantly changed. Her eyes lit up and her face brightened with undeniable eagerness.

"Yes?" Tecna asked hopefully.

In the face of all that expectation, Timmy hesitated and lost his nerve. "Guess who managed to download song files to his Portable Heroes Assistant?"

Tecna's face fell and without any prior warning she slide out of her seat and got to her feet. "Listen Timmy, sometimes I get a little tired of talking about our computers all the time. Why don't you give me a call when you feel like talking about us?"

"Well . . . I . . ." Timmy stuttered, but she was gone well before he could construct a sentence to try and make her stay. "Oh . . . shit!"

* * *

"So, how is it?"

Helia sighed as he contemplated the best way to answer the question that had been put to him. He was on the phone to his old roommate from Ossacip, Vincent (5). "It's different."

"You sound thrilled," Vincent noted sarcastically. "I honestly don't know why you decided to transfer there. I've heard of the reputation of the boys from Red Fountain and frankly everything I've heard describes them as being rather brutish. Honorable, but brutish."

"They are, but there are some aspects of the school that I quite enjoy," Helia said.

"Yeah? Like what?"

'_Alfea_,' Helia answered in his mind before he answered out loud, "The tactics and strategy classes are very interesting. I never realized just how much thought goes into the mission of theirs."

"Sounds exhilarating," Vincent said in a dead panned tone of voice. "Listen, I've gotta go, but I'll talk to you later, okay? Or you could always come to your senses and come back to Ossacip where you belong."

"Good-bye, Vincent," Helia finalized the conversation.

"Have fun playing solider," Vincent teased before hanging up the phone.

After he had hung up with Vincent, Helia tried to pass the time by tuning up a poem he had been working on for the last few days, but no matter how captivating the subject of the poem might have been to him, Helia couldn't seem to get himself to concentrate. He shifted his attention to a sketch he had started the day before, but he had even less luck at focusing on the sketch as he did with the poem. Finally, giving up on everything, Helia fell back into his last resort for whenever he felt stressed or unfocused; mediation. But even then, Helia found it impossible to slip down into the peaceful, trance-like state required during meditation due to one thought that kept going through his mind.

Helia was homesick. It had started the morning before when he had overhead Justin and his goons talking, and since then their words had repeated themselves around Helia's head until it got to the point where he could no longer deny the fact that he did not fit in here at Red Fountain. His hobbies and his beliefs just weren't as common as they were at Ossacip and because of that Helia felt alienated from the rest of the boys here, which in turn led to him feeling lonely. He had called Vincent in an effort to ward off the loneliness, but in the end it had only increased it. And what Vincent had said hadn't helped in the slightest.

_Come to your senses and come back to Ossacip where you belong . . . _

Once again, Helia found himself questioning why he had even come to Red Fountain in the first place.

Suddenly, Helia sensed something pass over him and he heard something stirring just outside his open window which forced him to open his eyes sharply and what he saw made his eyes widen. "Huh? Whoa."

Sitting on his windowsill in a place that had been empty a few minutes ago was a small, white plant. As Helia got to his feet and moved over to observer it close, the little plant started to grow at an unnaturally rapid pace until it reached the height of a fully grown plant. Its white flowers were rather pretty to look at, but it was their scent that caught Helia's attention. It was a soft yet enchanting smell that reminded Helia very much of the scent of jasmine, and one whiff of it was enough to put – as he had already written in the poem he had been working on – Helia's troubled mind at ease.

"Nice," Helia said, smiling to himself. There was only on fairy who could produce such a breathtaking plant, and as he looked off into the distance, he could see a tiny, pink speck disappearing towards Alfea.

* * *

_(1) I can't remember when or where I heard this, but it kinda makes sense. It's just one of those random facts I've picked up somewhere in my travels _

_(2) This is true. A chef who I used to work with (who I based the Red Fountain chef Jacob off)told me that's food's mostly a state of mind as he showed me when he feed two girls rabbit, telling them it was chicken. They asked for seconds _

_(3) The Sunrise breakfast crew on Channel 7 is my personal hate. They drive me nuts with they're false cheerfulness. No one's that bubbly that early in the morning! But the most annoying thing of all is that they have the best condensed news, sport and weather every half hour so I watch it, physically cringing at the annoying, fake chatter that they always do between sport and weather. Oh how I hate them _

_(4) I've seen one of those couples that look like they could be brother and sister. It was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. I wonder if they're still together? _

_(5) Helia's old roommate is named after Vincent Van Gogh and the only reason he's even mention in this story is because Helia needed a link back to his old school to get homesick about. So say hello to Vincent and then say goodbye . . . possibly forever _

_I dunno why, but I just can't write decent Timmy-centred scenes. I just can't get in his head as well as I can the others. And it doesn't help that 4kids doesn't give him anything interesting to deal with until the third season when Tecna gets lost in the Omega Denison. I'm trying, but . . . I dunno_

_TBC._


	12. Truth or Dare

_This is a pivotal chapter in my story and there's a lot that happens in it, so just watch me for the changes and try and keep up. _

_God I love Back to the Future._

_

* * *

_**Chapter Twelve – Truth or Dare**

Red Fountain was not as unified as the students at Alfea or even Cloud Tower were. The fairies and witches were a tight nit group who bonded together – mostly over their hatred of each other – but Red Fountain did not have that harmony. They were piled together in a school that had a curriculum which challenged them against each other not only in traditional academic studies but also in actual combat, so it was only natural that that tension spilled over into strong and often violent rivalry.

But there was one night every year, where the students of Red Fountain forgot their differences and their disagreements to join together to celebrate a magnificent event in their schools social calendar; the annual Vampirean Secret Fashion Show, the finest lingerie fashion show staring the most beautiful models in the universe including the nine vampires dubbed the Dark Angels. (1)

"Dude, hurry up or we won't get a good seat," Brandon stressed, bouncing on the ball of his feet in pure excitement. "C'mon! C'mon! C'mon!"

"Would you settle down? The models aren't going anywhere," Sky reminded his friend, but he didn't hesitate to follow Brandon to the door. They were all heading to their grades common room to watch the fashion show with the other juniors, while the rest of the school would be watching it from their own common rooms. Sky and Timmy slowly followed after their bounding friend, but as they passed their neighbours open door, Sky paused.

"What are you doing?" Brandon cried in anguish, noticing that his prince had stopped. "Miranda's waiting for me!"

"Oh stop it already," Sky ordered before turning his attention to the room he had stopped outside of only occupant. "Hey Helia, you coming to watch the show?"

"What show?" Helia asked, looking up from his notebook. All day he had heard guys going on and on about some show that was being screened that night, but he couldn't of the life of him work out what it was that had them so worked up.

"The Vampirean Secret Fashion Show," Sky answered.

Helia's cobalt eyes widened in surprise. That was no the answer he was expecting. "A fashion show?"

"It's a lingerie show," Brandon corrected, running back to Helia's door and sticking his head in the room. "Don't tell me you've never heard of it."

"Er . . ."

"Alessandra, Selita, Miranda, Heidi, Karolina, Adriana, Marisa, Izabel, Doutzen. Do you even know who these legendary women are?" Brandon asked in the same kind of tone one might use if they came across someone who didn't know the sky was blue. In the halls of Red Fountain, the boys may struggle to name the top ten most influential heroes in history, but anyone of them could tell you the name, height and secret indulgence of any of the nine vampires that were lucky enough to be names one of Vampirean Secret's Dark Angels in an instant.

"Ignore him," Sky advised Helia. "He takes this show very seriously."

"So you coming?" Timmy asked, but before Helia could respond, a fifth member joined the conversation.

"What the hell is taking you guys so long?" Riven demanded to know, striding down the hallway. "Move it, people."

"We're convincing Helia to come," Sky explained, ignoring his friends' order. Riven's attention and impatience instantly shifted to the art student who was still seated in his room.

"Well what are you waiting for, Ossacip? Let's go."

"I'm really not that interested, guys," Helia confessed, but before he could suggest that they go on without him Riven broke in with a comment of his own.

"How can you not be interested? How you seen these vampires?"

Helia gave Riven the best imitation he could do of his fathers 'not impressed' look. "The whole thing's a bit derogatory, don't you think? I mean, these women are parading around in their underwear – "

"Lingerie," Brandon corrected again.

" – for our entertainment and we're expected to believe that we live in an equal society?"

"Okay, first of all, if I wanted to have a debate over women's right, I would have picked a fight with Layla. And secondly, the Vampirean Secret Fashion Show is not derogatory; it is art. They are not just parading around in underwear. The accessories they put on to go with the underwear they're wearing cover a lot more than most fairies at Alfea wear when they transform into their winx form," Riven argued. "And also, if you don't go tonight, you'll be completely out of the loop for at least the next two months and people will start questioning your sexuality."

"Riven!" Sky scolded. That was no way to invite someone to watch the show. Helia was having a hard enough time fitting into Red Fountain without Riven being an ass to him. If he was in Helia's position, Sky would refuse to go just to defy Riven's arguments.

"What? They will."

"Are you serious?" Helia questioned.

"Yes. Do not underestimate just how seriously we take tonight," Riven warned. "Chances are, we'll be making reference to this show for the rest of the year."

"Well, now you've got me intrigued," Helia admitted, closing his notebook and getting to his feet.

Sky's eyes widened. "You're kidding me?"

"My father's a politician," Helia reminded the prince. "I've learnt to make my judgments based not only on my own ideals but the arguments and reason of others."

"Reason?" Brandon repeated. Never before had he ever heard of Riven being described as someone with reason. "That's ironic because normally Riven's reason is discussed with his fists."

"Can we go already?" Timmy asked, stopping this discussion from becoming a fist fight before it happened. "The show's gonna start soon."

"Do the girls over at Alfea get into this show as much as the guys here do?" Helia asked as they made their way towards the common room.

"Yes and no," Sky answered. "I know some of them like Stella watch it every year, but they don't exactly mark it on their calendar like some guys here do. Bloom told me tonight that Stella's planned a big girls session over at Alfea for tonight. Apparently they plan to sit around talking – no doubt about us – while eating junk food or whatever and then they'll watch the show. You know, typical girls night in."

"Which in my mind means that they'll all eventually strip down to their bras and panties for a pillow fight," Brandon added.

"That's because you have a perverted mind."

"Never boring," Brandon grinned impishly as Riven's phone started to go off. "Somebody loves you."

"It's a memo," Riven told him once he had pulled out his phone. "I didn't even know I had that function on my phone."

"Then what do you have a memo for?" Timmy asked.

"It's Darcy's birthday today," Riven informed the other boys in an indifferent tone of voice. "She must have programmed it in last year."

"Darcy?" Helia questioned and as soon as the word left his lips he noticed Timmy, Brandon and Sky all tense. Riven, however, stayed surprisingly unfazed.

"My psycho ex."

Helia knew he should have just left it at that, but the question formed itself on his tongue before he could stop it. "Isn't Darcy one of the Trix Sisters?"

"Yeah, like I said: psycho."

"Well tonight is not a night for witches, it's a night for vampires," Brandon said quickly in a rather obvious attempt to change the subject.

The junior common room was completely packed and although Helia would admit that he had his doubts about this fashion show, by the time they reached the second half of the show he found himself becoming quite intrigued by it all. It was actually pretty fascinating to consider that a show like this could stop an entire school and maybe even more amazing that the common room could hold them all. Sky was certain that everyone in their grade was present, but as the vampire Miranda marched down the cat walk wearing a nine million dollar diamond bra that always signalled the end of the show, the prince realised that someone was missing.

"Hey Sally, where's Jared?" Sky asked since Sally seemed to know everyone else business.

"I dunno," Sally admitted after scanning the room and realising that his classmate was indeed missing. "He had to go over to Alfea today and I haven't actually seen him since he left."

"What did he have to go to Alfea for?" Brandon questioned, catching the conversation while the rest of the room was focused on the models.

"Well he foolishly took your advice on writing that article about Alfea instead of writing about Jamie and his cheating girlfriend – which by the way would have made a much better article – and he went over there to do some research or something," Sally answered and Brandon felt this guts twist slightly in dread. "And I'm not sure, but I think he may have had a date or something."

"With who?" Brandon tried not to growl.

"I dunno, but if you give me a day or so I can find out, although I have a feeling that your girlfriend may have been involved. Maybe that's why he didn't want to write about my idea. He can't exactly name and shame a cheater if he's one himself, and he's doing it with your girlfriend under the guise that he's researching an article that you suggested. The level some people will sink too."

"I highly doubt that Stella's cheating on me with Jared, so if you don't mind, could you just drop it?" Brandon asked in a tone of voice that indicated that he'd better not hear another word about this topic – _ever_ – or else Sally was going to pay. Sally held his hands up in surrender and swore himself to silence, thinking that he had hit nerve by suggesting that Brandon's beloved girlfriend would be unfaithful to him, but in actual fact Brandon was more mad about the fact that Stella had completely ignored everything he had said to her when she had first thought up the possibility of setting Musa up with Jared and had gone ahead with it anyway. He bet she hadn't ever asked Musa beforehand if she wanted to set up.

"You alright, man?" Sky asked, noticing that Brandon's brown eyes had narrowed dangerously and he was clenching his teeth tightly, a clear indication that he was becoming furious.

"Oh, I will be," Brandon assured his prince. "Right after I have a few words with a certain Princess of Solaria."

* * *

Brandon did not go to Alfea looking for a fight, or at least he hadn't planned to. But after a day of stewing on the idea, Brandon couldn't deny the fact that he wouldn't exactly be displeased if a bit of conflict did occur. He had tried baiting Riven before he left to try and get it out of his system, but in typical Riven style, the normally argumentative teen wasn't in the mood of a fight that afternoon, proving that Riven wasn't always conscious of how difficult he could be. So unfortunately it was a very touché Brandon who ended up walking through the gates of Alfea that fateful afternoon.

He found the princess lounging on her bed with the latest issues of Vanity Fairy, Magical Fashion and Teen Fairy strewn around her as she flipped through the pages of Fabulous, the fashion magazine that Stella had done her summer interning at.

"Oh, hey Brandon," Stella greeted him when he walked into her room, but it was obvious her mind was still on the magazine that was in front of her. Turning the magazine around, she held up the page for Brandon to see. "You should see the new winter range that's coming out this season. Aren't they the cutest? I should really put a request in the Ms. Faragonda to try and get an extension built on my wardrobe. This tiny little wardrobe makes it impossible to hold all the clothes you want. It puts such a restriction on shopping."

"You have more closet room than all your friends combined," Brandon pointed out stiffly, folding his arms across his chest. See, even now it was all about her. She wasn't even paying attention to him.

"It's still not enough. There're just too much good fashion out there and not enough room to store it or events to wear them too," Stella commented, flipping through the pages of her magazine again. A silence fell over the room as Stella continued to focus on the pages in front of her and Brandon continued to glare at her, but it took a few minutes to pass before Stella noticed it, forcing her to lift her eyes from the pages and blink at her boyfriend. "Is everything okay, Bran?"

"Oh, so now you're willing to spare a second to focus on me, huh?" Brandon asked with a bit more bite than had originally been intended.

"What are you talking about?" Stella asked, putting the magazine down and focusing on the irritated specialist. She couldn't remember doing anything to upset her beau, so she couldn't for the life of her work out why he was acting this way.

"I talked to Jared today," Brandon informed her. "Apparently he and Musa had a date yesterday."

"Yeah," Stella said with a heavy sigh. "Unfortunately it didn't end up working out between them. Sometimes I just don't get Musa at all. I mean, Jared was sweet and charming and okay, so he did go through a little stage where he was spelled and tried to destroy us, but that's never put Musa off before. She even got pissy with me for no reason, saying that I was like out of line or whatever."

"Didn't I tell you that would happen? Didn't I tell you people don't appreciate it when you mess with their personal lives? Did you even listen to a word I said?"

"Yes, Brandon, I did," Stella said in such an offhanded way that it gave Brandon the feeling that she was only saying it to stop him complaining.

"You're lying."

"I am not."

"Yes you are. You didn't even listen to a word I said. You were so caught up in playing match maker that you didn't even consider Musa's feelings at all. I told you not to do it but you went ahead and did it anyway."

Stella sighed in frustration and looked up at her boyfriend, irritation burning in her honey eyes. "Look, Musa didn't end up liking Jared in that way since she's still infatuated with Riven so it's not like you have anything to worry about. That prick will still get the girl even though he's done nothing to deserve it."

"This isn't about Riven. It's about the fact that you absolutely refuse to listen to anyone about anything," Brandon said sharply. "It's always got to be your way, no matter what the cost."

"Oh that is not true," Stella instantly rejected. "So I may have gone ahead with the whole Musa and Jared thing without you liking it. Big deal. Musa's not interest. End of story."

"No, not end of story. My point is that you didn't listen to a word I said the other day. You know, about how Musa wasn't going to like you arranging her life for her. Did you even consider that what I said might hold some relevance? Seriously, sometimes it's like you don't even listen to me."

"I listen to you," Stella said. "I asked for your help when you bought those shoes the other week."

"Stella, they were shoes. And you didn't listen to me then either. I told you to get the white ones and you got them in cream," Brandon reminded her, his temper quickly slipping out of control.

Stella subtly rolled her eyes, and the squire could tell that she wasn't at all interested in what he was saying and just wanted to find a quick solution to it so she didn't have to deal with it anymore. "Look, I'm sorry. I'll try and make more of an effort to listen to what you say from now on."

"Stella, I know you're just saying that to shut me up. I'm not an idiot so don't treat me like one. I'm not the one who had to repeat freshmen year, remember?"

Guilt slammed itself hard into Brandon's guts as soon as the words left his lips. Stella did not like to be reminded about any part of her first attempt at freshmen year, especially the part where they told her that even though all the other fairies in her grade would be moving up, she would have to stay behind and go through the year again. Even Riven knew not to mention that particular topic to her face, but Brandon had been so angry and so frustrated with her that he had completely blanked on that fact.

Stella's eyes narrowed dangerously as an anger he had never seen on her before ignited. Scrambling to her feet, Stella stalked over to the door and ripped it open. "I think you should leave."

"Oh that's convenient. Order me out when things aren't to you liking."

"What is your problem, Brandon?" Stella asked, her voice dripping with venom. "So I set Musa up on a little date with Jared. Big whoop. If anything it should be Riven here bitchin' to me about it, but he's not. It's just you. Why are you even so upset about all this? It's not like you're the one dating Musa. So tell me Brandon, what the hell is your problem with all this?"

"My problem is that you're a self-centred, spoiled little brat that makes me feel as though everything _has_ to revolve around you. Newsflash Stella; I'm a part of this relationship too and I don't like being ignored. Is this how you treated your other boyfriends, cause it's royally sucks."

Stella blinked and stared at him for a beat before he eyes narrowed and an irritated look crossed her face. "Oh, I see what this is really about. You're wondering if I treated my other boyfriends – all of whom were princes – if I treat them the same as I treat you. Gods Brandon, you can be such an idiot sometimes."

"And yet out of the two of us, I'm not the one who blew up a potions lab."

_Slap!!_

Brandon flinched violently as Stella's open palm connected with his cheek. He knew dragging up the potions lab was low, but he was so angry he really didn't care how badly he hurt her feelings.

"Get out," Stella ordered in a low growl.

"I'm going!" Brandon snarled back, storming out of her room and headed for he levi bike, ignoring Bloom and Flora when he passed them in the hallway.

* * *

"I-I . . . I'm sorry, I still don't get it. What the hell happened?" Sky asked Brandon, completely confused by how the argument between the perfect couple of Stella and Brandon could just happen like that that afternoon. "Do you even know what you were fighting about?"

"Yes," Brandon told him sharply, but then he fell silent as he pushed his dinner around his plate with his fork. He could feel Sky staring at him with the same kind of look his father used to give him when he knew he was lying. "Sort of."

"Well then can you fill me in cause I'm still confused," Timmy said. "Is this about the Jared thing?"

"No. Jared was just the straw that broke the camels back," Brandon spat, shovelling a big forkful of spaghetti into his mouth.

"When did Jared get a camel?" Lex, who was sitting next to Timmy, asked. He had been listening to Sky, Brandon and Timmy conversation over dinner. He really didn't understand what they were talking about, but he had never let that stand in his way in the past.

"Lex, shut up," Brandon ordered as soon as he had swallowed his mouthful of dinner and Lex instantly complied without insult. That was one of the great things about Lex; you could say anything to him and he wouldn't be offended by it. That was probably why he was still friends with Riven.

"So what happened with Stella?" Sky asked, trying to get Brandon back on track.

"She's just so self-centred," Brandon told them. "It's infuriating. She never stops to consider others and she can be incredibly rude, even to her friends. I am I only one who's noticed this?"

"No, but that does allow you to rub the fact that she failed her freshmen year the first time in her face," Sky pointed out. "Two wrongs don't equal a right."

"Save it," Brandon spat, shovelling another forkful of food into his mouth.

"Brandon – "

"I said 'save it'," Brandon repeated around his dinner.

"She's your girlfriend!" Sky reminded his friend firmly, not caring that he didn't want to talk about it. "Do you remember that? Stella is your girlfriend. This is the same girl who caused you to lose interest in all the other fairies you were chasing in freshmen year. This is the girl that you followed to Earth, Sparx and Cloud Tower for. This is the girl that you gave a ring too at the beginning for the year and who you told her you loved her only a few months ago. Do you remember all that?"

"Sky, I'm not an idiot."

"Then why are you acting like one?"

"Er, Sky . . ." Timmy tried to intervene, but he could not string together a decent sentence to even distract them from what they were currently discussing. All he could do was look between the two Eraklyains with a feeling of dread building up inside of him.

"I may be acting like an idiot, but that doesn't change the fact that Stella's a self-centred, spoiled princess and she always will be," Brandon snarled, glaring at his prince.

"You can't call her that," Sky told him. "She's a princess."

"So? You're a prince but I'm not going to hesitate to tell you that I think you're a lofty, pushy snob who likes to stick his nose in places where they really don't belong!"

Sky's blue eyes darkened. "You've crossed a line there."

"Sorry," Brandon grumbled, but Sky knew that he was only saying that because he had to. However, years of training for the day he inherited the throne had taught him to keep his temper in check and his mind focused.

"Maybe you should be saying that to Stella," Sky suggested.

"No."

"Then at least apologise."

"Sky, I don't know if you're aware of this, but saying 'you're sorry' and saying 'you apologise' means the exact same thing!" Brandon pointed out, his voice getting steadily louder.

"Not if you're at a funeral (2)," Lex told them all helpfully, pushing his dinner around his plate with his fork. "Believe me."

"Lex," Brandon said after a long moment of just staring at the short student in a mixture of disbelief and confusion. "Go away."

"Okay," Lex grinned cluelessly, getting to his feet and moving off to finish his dinner at the table where Toby and Sally sat.

Timmy rolled his eyes at the stupidity of one of his classmates and returned his attention back to stupidity of another one. "Brandon, we're not saying that you have to be the first to apologise if you don't want to, but do you really want your relationship to get ruined this way? You know how stubborn Stella is. She's not going to be the end it if she feels she doesn't have to."

"So I have to forgo my pride just for some spoiled brat?"

"What are you forgoing exactly?" Helia asked, speaking for the first time since he had sat down to dinner.

"What?" Brandon asked rudely. He still wasn't sure how he felt about Helia, and he got the feeling that he did exactly approve of this outsider dealing with his personal matters.

"What are you forgoing exactly?"

"My pride."

"But does your pride have any relation to your argument?"

"Yes."

"What?"

Brandon opened his mouth, but no response came out.

"I get the feeling that it has little to do with reason and more to do with the childish notion of who's going to back down first," Timmy said, a sly grin tugging at the corner of his lip.

"I got that feeling too," Helia noted.

"Well . . . I . . . Shut up!" Brandon snapped.

"He's got a point," Sky told his best friend and he knew that Brandon didn't like it. The squire slumped in his seat and scowled at his dinner. He hated to admit it, but Helia had made a pretty good point. The argument between him and Stella had nothing to do with an actual topic and all to do with pride and stubbornness. Stella refused to admit that maybe she shouldn't have tried to interfere with Musa's love life and Brandon refused to apologise for the vicious way he had attacked her over it. "I mean, what would have happened if Musa ended up liking Jared more than Riven and they started dating? Would you have broken up with Stella out of protest?"

"No, I wouldn't have too because if Musa had ended up liking Jared more than Riven and they started dating, Riven would kill Jared."

"Oh, Riven is not that aggressive," Sky objected, earning several sceptical looks from the others sitting around him. "I admit that he does have a temper – I know better than anyone – but it's not like he goes out looking for trouble." There was a short pause as Sky considered when he had just said. "Well, most of the time he doesn't." There was another pause. "Well, this year he hasn't."

"Then what is he doing now?" Helia asked, looking at a point beyond them. Following Helia's eye line, the three students quickly spotted Riven standing not too far from where they were sitting, 'talking' with Kane. The boys couldn't overhear what was being said, but Riven was smirking viciously and Kane's face was turning a shade of red that clashed horribly with his red hair and his hands were clenched into fists by his side.

You could practically smell a fight.

"Shit," Sky hissed, pushing his chair back with a loud scrap on the mess hall floor tiles and getting to his feet in order to delay the inevitable showdown between his two classmates for at least a little bit longer. Ever since freshmen year, Riven and Kane had rubbed each other the wrong way. They were both so similar, not just in appearance but in attitude as well. They were both hot blooded and headstrong and unfortunately they just tended to clash with each other. Saladin had really made a mistake when he had made them roommates, and all the tension that existed between them reached boiling point as Riven continued to push Kane's buttons. Before Sky could get anywhere near then and drag Riven away for them, Kane cracked. Pulling his arm back, Kane let his fist fly and connect soundly with Riven's jaw.

For there, it was _on!_

Ignoring the sudden pain that had erupted on the left side of his face, Riven put his head down and rugby tackled Kane around the middle, sending the two of them crashing into the table behind them. The table was durable enough to stand the impact, but the dinners sitting on top of it weren't. Plates, cutlery and drinking glasses all went scattering and chairs toppled over as the students sitting at the table scrambled to their feet to get clear of the fight that had unexpectedly dropped into their dinner. The mess was suddenly alive with motion and sounds and student everywhere tousled to get a better view and shouts of 'Fight! Fight! Fight!' egged Riven on as he repeatedly smashed his fist into Kane's face.

Pulling his legs up between them, Kane kicked Riven off of him resulting in Riven almost falling when his shoes slipped on the titled floor that was now covered in spaghetti pasta and sauce that had either been knocked to the ground or dropped when the fight started. The former thief managed to keep his feet, but the slight distraction was enough to allow Kane to grab someone's dinner tray and slam it down forcefully onto Riven's head. Dazed but not distracted, Riven lashed out with one of his long legs, but the slippery floor almost resulted in him falling as well as Kane, so the two red heads just settled for trying to punch each other in the face and ribs until Jacob stormed in and ripped them apart.

"Quit it, you bastards!" Jacob ordered, gripping the pair by the scruff of their shirts and pulling them apart. "You wonna box? Then get the hell out of my mess hall!"

"What the hell is going on here?!" a rough voice demanded, and the crowd of spectators parted and made way for a furious looking Codatorta. The combat instructor took one look at the two boys in Jacob's gasp and the mess they were standing in and his expression darkened. "You two, follow me. Now!"

Throwing each other a filthy look, Riven and Kane followed Codatorta out of the mess towards Saladin's office where they were to spend the next hour getting grilled by their headmaster. By the time it was lights out, the irritated cleaning staff finally finished wiping up the last of the spaghetti that had found its way onto the floor, Kane had returned to his room and made a declaration to no one was allowed to so much as mention the name Riven in his presence and Riven had snuck off into Magix where he would remain all night, refusing to answer his phone when his friends tried to contact him.

* * *

The sun woke Riven up long before he wanted to. His eyelids were heavy with the weight that always seemed to follow a night of heavy drinking and his body was stiff after spending the night on the streets of Magix instead of the soft bed that was waiting for him back at Red Fountain. However, as long as that bed was in the same room as Kane, Riven would choose to sleep on the streets any day.

"Stupid Kane," Riven grumbled, flinching at the brightness of the morning sun. If it hadn't been for that ass, Riven would never have been out drinking last night. Blinking, Riven surveyed his surroundings and after a few moments, his brain was finally able to register the fact that he had somehow found his way onto the roof of one of the many buildings Magix had on offer. Riven had always been drawn to rooftops since they had acted as a perfect highway for his as a child whenever he had need to move through the city quickly, but he couldn't remember climbing onto this one last night let alone when he passed out. The last thing he could remember was after pick pocketing a bunch of unsuspecting donors, he had used his fake ID to sneak into a pub for a few drinks.

After that, everything got a bit blurry.

"Coffee," Riven mumbled, his tongue feeling thick in his mouth. "I need coffee."

Forcing himself to stand, Riven steadied himself as the world spun around him. His legs felt weak beneath the weight of his body, his hands trembled and the urge to throw up was almost over whelming. Riven couldn't believe that this was pretty much exactly how he started each day for most of last year.

Once he was confident enough that he could make it down to street level without killing himself in the process, Riven made a slow decent down the fire escape to the ally way below. Like all ally ways, this one smelt of a mixture of wet dog and a dumpster on a hot day, but even in his delicate state, Riven wasn't fazed. Digging through the pockets of his jeans, Riven pulled out a wallet that didn't belong to him and looked to see if it still had any money in it. Once that was deemed to be successful, Riven glanced at the ID before removing the cash and discarding the now empty wallet.

"Well, Julian Baxter, looks like the coffee's on you."

* * *

On Sundays most people liked to sleep in, but Helia wasn't like most people. Instead, every Sunday Helia would get up early and make good use of the quiet and the solitude while everyone else stayed in bed. Normally he'd head into Magix so he could see the usually busy city quiet for one morning a week. Plus it gave him a chance to get his fix of a good herbal tea since Red Fountain didn't provide a very wide selection.

Glorious Jean (3) was on one of the best coffee and tea houses in Magix and at this early a time on a Sunday morning it was no where near as crowded as it was on any other morning. In fact, apart from Helia, the only other occupants of the store was a man who was completely engrossed in his newspaper, a lady who was rewarding herself with a coffee after getting up early for her morning run and a girl who was yet to order anything and instead spent all her time talking to the boy behind the counter and stealing the marshmallows that were used in hot chocolates when he wasn't looking (4).

So when the doors to the shop open, Helia had to look up from the notebook he was sketching in to see who had joined them, and he was surprised to discover that it was actually someone he knew.

"I need coffee," Riven put simply as soon as he had made it to the counter. "Coffee, with extra coffee, then more coffee on that followed by a double shot of coffee. And then more coffee."

"Okay?" the boy behind the counter said in an uncertain sounding tone of voice. "I'll try my best."

"Good luck," Riven wished him before burying his face in his arms as he waited for his order to be made. When his coffee was finished, Riven took one small sip and then physically flinched at the powerful brew.

"Too strong?" the boy who severed him asked.

"No, that's perfect," Riven gasped, throwing several notes onto the counter. "Keep the change."

The boy's eyes widened. "But that's over fifty dollars!"

"Yeah, what can I say? I'm a good tipper when I'm hung over," Riven shrugged, grabbing his drink and moving off with it.

The Red Fountain student did not look his best this morning, Helia noticed. He wore the same clothes as the night before and they were stained with various bits of last nights dinner that had ended up everywhere during the fight with Kane. His eyes were bloodshot and his skin was pale as if he was about to be sick. The left side of his face had a faint bruise on it from where Kane had landed a punch, but other than that there was no evidence on Riven's body that he had been in a fight over the last twelve hours or so.

"Hey," Riven greeted weakly when he spotted Helia sitting at one of the tables. The art student replied with a polite nod of his head, but he couldn't think of anything to say to the burgundy haired specialist since the two of them had next to nothing in common. Luckily, Riven wasn't looking for any conversation. Collapsing into the seat at one of the tables the coffee shop had on offer, Riven buried his face in his arms in order to hide his delicate eyes from the bright sun. The table he was seated at was close enough to Helia's so that the pair could talk to one another if either of them could come up with anything to say to each other, but at the same time far enough away so that there was no actual obligation for them to speak if they didn't want to.

Which was exactly what they did.

As Helia watched his classmate suffer silently, it suddenly occurred to him how he and Riven were complete and total opposites. Helia had descended from a long and impressive family history that he was rather proud of while Riven couldn't even tell you his fathers name and seemed to put a lot of effort into completely ignoring the fact that he even had a family in the past. Helia had lived a very comfortable life while up until a few years ago, Riven had had to scrounge and steal for every meal. Helia had strong ideals and believed that fighting was not the answer. Riven, however, rarely let his morals stand in his road if he wanted something and his hand was just as quick to draw his sword as his temper was. Helia's pacifistic views had always clash with Riven's willingness to fight, and from the looks of it, the two of them were never going to see eye to eye on that matter.

Helia could recognise Riven as exactly the kind of person who made Helia feel unwelcome at Red Fountain based on their conflict of opinion, but as his grandfather always used to say to him as a child; 'It's the challenges in life that make you strong, so don't put them off for too long'.

"So, did you have a big night or something?" Helia tried to instigate a conversation with the boy he was so different from. Riven lifted his face out of his arms and frowned as he tried to recall what he did the night before.

"I dunno. I think so. I woke up on a roof that I don't remember climbing onto so I guess I must have, which is kinda annoying since I swore that I wasn't going to drink to the point where I couldn't remember for the rest of the year," Riven repented. He took another sip of his coffee and again the taste was powerful enough to make him shutter. "Well, at least it wasn't the only stupid thing I did last night."

"Yeah," Helia agreed softly, recalling the fight between the two red haired roommates. "So what are you going to do know? Are you and Kane still going to share a dorm?"

"Doubt it since we can barely stand being in the same room together."

"Does that mean that you'll move back in with Sky and the others like you did last year?"

Riven though about that possibility for a second, and then shook his head no. Or at least, as much as his delicate head would let him. "Nah, we're gettin' too big for the four of us to live in a room that size. I dunno. I'm sure something will work out."

Silence once again resumed as Riven tried to get his coffee down while Helia was left with his thoughts.

Helia had felt self conscious ever since he had transferred to Red Fountain, not only because of his pacifist beliefs but because he wasn't really close to anyone in his grade like the others were. Even though Red Fountain was a very social school in terms of everyone talked and got along with everyone else to a degree, the students did tend to travel in packs. They'd stick with their squads both in and outside of class and had formed impenetrable bonds with their roommates, with of course a few rare exceptions like what happened with Riven and Kane. Saladin had offered Helia a single room which at first Helia had been grateful for since it acted as a sanctuary for him where he could escape from the stressful world that was high school. But now he was starting to think that excluding himself from the forced socialisation that came with having a roommate and Helia was getting the feeling that he had missed an opportunity to make himself feel accepted in his class.

Riven might not be Helia's first choice for a roommate, but the burgundy haired specialist knew how Red Fountain worked and had a strong connection with Prince Sky, Brandon and Timmy, all three of whom were people that Helia felt slightly comfortable around. And then there was Riven's close – though slightly unsteady – involvement with the Winx Club, which was something that Helia couldn't overlook.

"You could always room with me, that is, if you wanted to," Helia offered before he had a chance to over think it and change his mind. Riven looked up at the art students, his violet eyes wide with surprise that quickly narrowed into suspicion.

"Why would you make such an offer?" Riven demanded. "We have virtually nothing in common. In fact, I'm pretty sure this is the longest conversation the two of us had ever had, so why would you offer to share a room with me? Especially after you saw how I treated the last roommate I had."

"Fine, forget I said anything," Helia snapped, a bit annoyed that his kind offer had been so rudely thrown back in his face.

"Nah, you had a reason for offering your room to me and I wonna know what it is."

"I said forget it," Helia repeated, trying to focus on the sketch he had been working on before Riven had entered the coffee shop, but Riven had never been one to give up just because someone asked him to.

"No, tell me; why did you offer to share a room with me?"

Helia's patience broke at that point. Putting his pencil down, Helia lifted his blue eyes to glare at Riven directly. "You really want to know? Fine. As I'm sure you don't need to be made aware of, I'm not exactly fitting in at Red Fountain, and you're someone who knows the ropes at that school so figured I could use that to my own advantage. Satisfied?"

Riven stared at the long hair art student for a moment, turning over what Helia had said in his mind, before nodding. "Fair enough. I'll do it."

That was not the response Helia was expecting. "What?"

"I said I'll do it," Riven repeated.

"Did you not listen to a word I said? I'm using you for my own gain."

Riven started to laugh weakly. "You really don't know me at all, do you, Helia? I grew up in a city where anterior motives and selfish agendas were expected of people in everything they did. It's selflessness and charity that I don't trust. What you're demanding is perfectly rational to me."

"I'm not demanding anything. I – "

"Sure you are. You're offering me a room but in return I gotta show you how to survive in a place like Red Fountain. It's equivalent exchange; something for something else. It's only fair."

Helia could deny that Riven had a point, but it still didn't sit well with him. "Perhaps, but you don't have to make it sound so conniving and underhanded."

"It's what's expected of me," Riven shrugged. "But I wonna ask you something; why'd you even transfer to Red Fountain to begin with? The first day I met you, you were completely against everything that Red Fountain represented and now you're a student there? It doesn't add up."

"I just figured it was time to broaden my views on life and discover what it is about heroics and bravery that my grandfather is so passionate about."

Riven didn't buy that for a second. "Don't give me that bullshit. You said that heroics and bravery never appealed to you and you've been happy enough living out the past few years without knowing what makes Saladin tick."

"Well I'm sorry if you don't believe me, but that's the truth."

"Uh-huh. So it has nothing to do with a certain Alfea fairy?"

"Of course not," Helia lied, but Riven didn't miss the faint colouring that entered Helia's cheeks at the accusation. But he decided not to push the matter. After all, the guy had just offered him a chance to get out of rooming with Kane.

"If you say so, man," Riven said, returning his attention to his powerfully strong cup of coffee.

"So what's been going on between you and Musa?" Helia had to ask, causing Riven to choke on his coffee. "Is there something happening with you two or am I just imagining things?"

"I really don't have to answer that," Riven said as soon as he had recovered.

"Sure you do. Equivalent exchange, remember? I told you why I transferred to Red Fountain, so now you have to answer one of my questions."

"You didn't tell me nothin'."

"I did, you just didn't believe me. Now tell me; what's happening between you and Musa?"

Riven glared at the other boy, before averting his gaze out one of the windows with a schooled expression and shrugged. "I dunno. She's kinda hot, I guess. But it's not like I care what she does or anything."

"Uh-huh. If you say so," Helia mocked what Riven had said earlier.

"Anyway, you think you can convince Saladin to let you room with a delinquent like me?" Riven asked, desperate for a change of conversation.

"Of course I can," Helia answered confidently. "You think you can turn this pacifist into a socially acceptable Red Fountain student?"

"It won't be easy considering I tend to specialise in destroying people's social stances, not advancing them, but I reckon I can pull it off," Riven nodded, extending his hand to finalize the deal.

"Alright, you're on," Helia agreed, accepting Riven's hand and shaking it.

* * *

"He's still not answering his phone," Sky told Brandon and Timmy after trying to call Riven for what would have been the hundredth time since he had snuck off the night before. "Maybe we should go look for him."

"Dude, you know Riv; if he doesn't want to be found, you sure as hell ain't gonna find him, and that goes double when he's in the city," Brandon reminded his prince calmly for his place lounging in his desk chair. "Just relax. He'll get back when he gets back, and there's nothing we can do till then."

"You're taking this rather calmly," Timmy noted. It was in Brandon's nature to behave like a mother hen in regards to his friends, and he tended to take it a little further when it came to Riven. Brandon liked to help people and Riven had a tendency to push help like that away, so Brandon's dedication to save his friend from himself had become rather extreme.

"You just gotta keep it cool."

"Hey Timmy, do you have those notes on the origin and principals of the Ideina Formation that Javelin printed out?" Riven asked, sauntering into the room like he didn't have a care in the world. "I can't find my copy."

"Where the hell have you been?!" Brandon suddenly raged, leaping to his feet and glaring at his friend like a furious and frustrated parent confronting a rebellious teen who had stayed out after curfew. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been? First you're fighting with Kane in the middle of the mess like a bar room drunk and then you disappear all night with nothing so much as a phone call? I should – "

"Ground me?" Riven said before rolling his eyes. "Seriously Brandon, get off my back. I got enough to deal with. Timmy, those notes?"

"Yeah, okay," Timmy nodded, digging through the notes on his desk.

"What were you thinking?" Brandon demanded angrily. "You've got a zero tolerance policy on you. Saladin could kick you out of Red Fountain over this, so what the hell were you thinking?"

"I don't know. It's a complicated combination of the position of the moon and probably a lack of fibre in my diet," Riven told him sarcastically.

"Riven," Sky warned.

"Hey, Kane threw the first punch," Riven reminded them. "I just took that as an excuse to hit him back."

"Yeah and now Saladin has an excuse to kick you out of Red Fountain."

"He's not going to do that. Timmy, those notes?"

"I'm looking," Timmy assured him. "How do you know?"

"What?"

"How do you know Saladin's not going to kick you out?"

"Because he said he wouldn't," Riven said simply, but the looks he got off his three friends informed him that they wanted more. "I get to stay provided I volunteer to help Codatorta with the end of year stock take and I have to help out Jacob with dinner duty every second night."

"Why every second night?" Sky asked.

"Because every other night Kane's in there and Saladin thinks that it's best to have a bit of distance between the two of us."

"Well, that's not really going to work, now is it?" Sky asked, feeling as if he was the only one to notice the massive flaw to that plan. "I mean, you two are roommates. What are you going to do about that?"

"Oh, don't worry about," Riven shrugged off as Timmy finally handed him the notes he had originally came in for. After glancing over them, Riven turned to leave. "Thanks Tim. I'll give 'em back soon as I'm done with 'em."

"You could always move back in here with us," Sky offered, causing Riven to pause his exit so he could stare back at the prince sceptically. "I mean, if you wanted to."

"Don't be stupid, Sky," Riven instantly shot down. "There is no way in hell they'd be able to fit four people in a room this size even if I was desperate enough to even consider it."

"Well, we managed it in freshmen year," Sky reminded him, a little insulted that Riven had so swiftly rejected their help.

"Yeah, and it was hell."

"It wasn't that bad," Brandon said softly.

"It was bad enough for me to completely reject the very thought of doing it again," Riven responded pointedly.

"Well then what the hell are you going to do about Kane?" Sky snapped angrily.

"I told you; don't worry about it," Riven said again. "It's already been arranged for me to move in with Helia."

Sky blinked. "What?"

"Does Helia know about this?" Timmy had to ask.

Riven nodded. "Yeah. It was his idea."

"What?" Sky said again.

"When did you start talking to Helia?" Brandon asked. Apart from attending the same school, Helia and Riven had absolutely nothing in common with each other. They hardly ever socialised with one another and had only ever exchanged a handful of words with each other, and yet all a sudden they were planning to become roommates.

"This morning," Riven answered simply.

"And you somehow managed to charm him to share his room with you in one morning?"

"No. We argued for a bit and then decided on it," Riven explained. "Now can I please go and make a copy of these notes or are you three going to continue interrogating me?"

"Um, no," Sky stammered, a little lost for words. "Go if you want."

"Finally," Riven breathed irritably, exiting the room and reading as he walked.

"Huh," Sky grunted after Riven left. "Riven and Helia. Well, I wouldn't have seen that coming in a million years."

"It is a bit unexpected," Timmy agreed.

"It's so not gonna last," Brandon said before letting out a laugh. "But it would make a pretty good TV show. Riven and Helia; the original odd couple."

And with that, they all returned their attention back to completing their homework.

* * *

_(1) Vampirean Secret Fashion Show is obviously a take off of the Victoria Secret Fashion Show that they hold once a year. I personally love that show. First time I saw it was actually when I was in hospital on morphine or whatever they give you to make you loopy, and it gave a little extra something to the show. I also watch Supernatural that night, which is even more fun on morphine. But if you haven't seen the show it's well worth watching. The clothes/underwear are incredible and I so want a set of the angel wings they wear. My favourite model is Miranda. She's from Australia too _

_(2) One of my favourite comedians is a guy call Demetri Martin who does heaps of really funny jokes, usually with a guitar. One song is called Sames and Opposites and that's taken from a line in it_

_(3) Glorious Jean is a very unimaginative take on a coffee chain in Australia (any maybe other parts of the world too, I'm not sure) called Gloria Jeans _

_(4) That's me! I'm the girl who steals marshmallow from the guy behind the counter who's my best friend_

_See, I told you I was gonna bust up Brandon and Stella. Perfect is just too damn boring. And just because I didn't hit the Jared button now doesn't mean I won't do it later. To do it now would be just too . . . expected._

_TBC._


	13. Gangs of Gardenia

_Okay, I know I haven't posted anything in a while and there's no excuse. I'm just lazy, so thanks to fortuneprincess for giving me the kick up the ass I needed._

_Moving right along . . ._

_

* * *

_**Chapter Thirteen – Gangs of Gardenia **

"Shit," Helia cursed through gritted teeth as he leapt backwards to avoid having his stomach sliced open by Rowan's massive battle axe. Despite the heavy weight of the weapon and the huge amount of force that had been put behind the swing of it, Rowan recovered quickly and went after the art student with another attack. This time, Helia wasn't fast enough to dodge the attack completely, and his cape suffered for it.

"Who rips their uniform these days?" Justin asked Marcus loudly enough for the rest of the class could hear him from the sidelines, a vindictive smile on his face. "After all, Red Fountain uniforms are made from material durable enough to survive the most extreme fighting situations and Paintbrushes over there can't even go one round with our man Rowan. Pathetic."

"That's enough," Codatorta growled, cancelling both the bout and the chatter. "Good recovery, Rowan, but next time put more control into your swing to avoid that situation entirely. Helia . . . again, you need to be more offensive if you want to pass this class. Having a good defence is important but it can't be everything you have."

"Yes sir," Helia muttered, staring at the ground. He absolutely hated combat class since it was a complete contrast to his beliefs. Unfortunately, combat class was a compulsory subject at Red Fountain and no matter how hard he begged his grandfather to let him get out of it, Helia was forced to endure a period everyday and be the target of Justin's torment. The duke's son was never as out right rude to him as he was with Brandon and the other 'lower class' students, but with each day his taunts were getting closer and closer to that level.

"Alright, class dismissed," Codatorta announced. "Go to lunch."

"Hey Helia, I got a question for you," Justin said as he and the rest of the lacrosse team made their way over to the art student like a pack of wolves closing in on a wounded deer. Justin's face and tone was one of innocent curiosity, but Helia could still sense the underlying malevolent that was being radiated out. "If you want to play with string, why didn't you take up knitting instead of heroics?"

"Good one," Marcus grinned as the rest of Justin's goons laughed.

"Yeah, funny," Helia agreed sarcastically. "Did you think of that one all by yourself or did you have to buy it off someone with daddy's money?"

Justin's grin dropped into an un-amused sneer and his eyes narrowed. Although he had the upmost respect for Saladin, he found Helia to be a lesser son of greater sires and he was quickly failing to keep his disgust at bay. Behind him, his goons stared flexing their muscles and cracking their knuckles, waiting for them to be given the order to attack. "You know, art boy, if you weren't Saladin's grandson you would have been kicked out of here after your first week. You obviously don't take after your mothers side of the family which makes me wonder; what kind of a loser did Saladin's daughter hook up with to produce such a – "

"Hey Helia!" Riven called, strolling over to his roommate. "C'mon, man. I'm starvin'."

"Yeah, I'm coming," Helia said while Riven turned his burning violet eyes on Justin and his goons, who had suddenly dropped their aggressive attitude that they had been displaying before.

"Is there anything you want, Status Crow?"

Justin's face turned stony at his much hated nickname, but even with the entire lacrosse team backing him up he wasn't stupid enough to go up against Riven. "No."

"Then scram, crow boy. We've got better things to do than look at your pointed face," Riven spat as he and Helia left, leaving behind a fuming son of a duke.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to work Justin up like that?" Helia asked as the two of them tried to make their way to the mess hall through the crowded hallways. "His father is a powerful man, after all, not to mention he's got the entire lacrosse team behind him. You're walking on thin ice."

"I'm always on thin ice. I wouldn't know how to live any different," Riven waved off. "Besides, Justin's too gutless to try anything."

Helia sighed. "He doesn't seem to have that problem around me."

Riven gave his roommate a sideway glance as they continued to walk. He knew that Helia was having a hard time fitting in at Red Fountain which was why he had offered to room with Riven in exchange for some advice on how to survive the school year, and it was time to start teaching. "You can change that easily. All you gotta do is change your reputation and start surrounding you name with a little bit of fear and everyone will back off."

"Fear?" Helia repeated, raising an eye brow and staring at the other teen with a look that seemed to be rather disapproving.

"Yeah. You do you think this school's governed by? Respect? Don't be absurd. Everyone here spends half their time trying to figure out who not to pick fights with and the other half picking on the ones that they know they can. It's a dog eat dog world in here and everyone's trying to think of a way to save their own skin."

"You make it sound barbaric."

"It is. It's high school. Get a good enough rep as someone not to be messed with and you'll rule this school."

"That doesn't seem to be the case with Brandon and Sky," Helia debated. "They're nice guys and everyone respects them."

"Yeah, and that has nothing to do with the fact that they're both two of the best swordsmen in our grade?" Riven questioned. "You and Timmy are equally as nice as those two but people don't back off on you like them because you're not up to their level of combat skill."

"I don't believe that," Helia said. "Good people don't get bullied just because they're not as good with a weapon as others. I think respect has more of a sway than fear."

"Oh yeah?" Riven asked, coming to a stop and scanning the corridor until he spotted a sophomore standing several meters away, glancing over his notes. "See that guy over there? What's his name? Mike? Mick? Mark?"

Helia rolled his eyes before supplying, "Brad?"

"I knew it had four letters in it," Riven shrugged off quickly in order to make his point. "Anyway, try and get him to come over here with nothing but you're goody-goody reputation and respectable nature."

"Easy," Helia accepted the challenge. "Hey Brad! Can you please come over here for a second?"

"Not right now," Brad answered immediately before returning to his notes.

"He's busy at the moment," Helia informed Riven pathetically. Riven arched an eye brow at his roommate before whistling sharply through his teeth like a master calling his dog. In an instant, Brad abandoned his study and bolted over to the two juniors, awaiting instructions.

"Sir?" Brad asked Riven, a slightly terrified glint in his eyes.

"Slap yourself very hard in the face then leave," Riven commanded, never once taking his eyes of Helia so he could watch his roommates reaction. Obediently, Brad raised his own hand, slapped himself across the face and then fled (1). "See? Respect had nothing over fear in a place like this."

"That's horrible," Helia gasped, shocked at by what had just happened.

"That's high school," Riven said again, entering the mess hall. He had skipped breakfast so he was pretty hungry by now so the conversation was briefly paused as they scavenged their food out of the lunch line and fought their way through the crowded lunch room to their regular table where Timmy, Brandon and Sky were already seated.

"So, are you saying that Red Fountain is like a battle field?" Helia asked Riven, sliding into his seat.

"No. I'm saying that Red Fountain _is_ a battle field," Riven told him, pulling the slices of tomatoes out of his sandwich. For a boy who a few years ago was living on the streets and surviving on whatever he could get his hands on, he had gotten picky since arrive at Red Fountain and being exposed to Jacob's cooking. "And it's not just grades like most normal schools have to deal with. Students here have a habit of taking grudges and rivalry too far."

"Like you and Kane?" Helia asked jestingly.

"Yes, just like me and Kane," Riven said with a viscous looking smile. "And you need to build up a rep that you shouldn't be messed with, and you're pathetic, pansy pacifists belief are not going to get you that."

"Riven, maybe this isn't the – " Sky started trying to cut off this conversation before all hell broke lose, but surprisingly enough it was Helia who stopped him.

"No, let him speak," Helia ordered, silencing the prince. "What do you have against pacifism?"

Riven snorted a laugh. "Where do I start?"

"I suggest somewhere or else this is going to be a very boring debate."

"Pacifism doesn't work," Riven put bluntly. "It's an idiotic ideal which simply ignores basic human nature rather than confronting it. People are going to fight. It's always been that way and none of that hippy crap is gonna change it."

"Yes, people have always had a will to fight, but that doesn't make it right. The only reason fighting is a part of human nature is because it's a trait that has been bred into our nature after countless generations of blood shed. Red Fountain boasts that their duty is to protect and serve. Wouldn't you say that we owe it to the people we are try to protect to set an example of a less violent life?"

"We have, to a degree."

"No you haven't. The senior biology elective includes a module on anatomy which focuses on which the parts of the body you should attack for quick, effective way to kill a person."

"Yes, why bother learning about quick, effective way to kill a person when you can just stab them in the stomach and leave them for a long, drawn out, painful death? And don't say we haven't done anything. We're replaced traditional steel weapons for phantom blades. Our guns are loaded with stun and addle bullets which don't kill and we're trained how to use them properly to avoid us making dangerous mistakes."

"That all very lovely but it doesn't change the fact your school's main subject is combat," Helia reminded him.

"Hey, it's your school too, Paintbrushes," Riven pointed out, reaching over to steal some of Brandon's chips.

"I'm in denial."

"You're an artist, right?"

"I try to be."

"So isn't it you're job to speak to truth and recognize the beauty of human nature or some crap like that? Now I'm not saying there's a need for reckless battles or anything like that, but how can you talk about the beauty of human kind without acknowledging mans will to fight?"

"That's very elegant but it's still total nonsense," Helia commented. "Beauty in the will to fight? If that's true then why is it that so many seasoned soldiers who all comment how horrible war really is? There is no beauty in battle, only sorry. And the idea of fighting to obtain peace is completely ridiculous, you know that. I'm sure the pale pep talks for peace have been repeated numerous times in the past and yet every time they're spoken they're never achieved because fighting and battles are not the way to gain peace. In fact the very idea of fighting for peace is an oxymoron."

"What the hell's an oxymoron?"

"It's something that contradicts itself, like say justifying killing thousands of lives in the hope that in the end of it all there'll be peace."

"He's got a point there," Sky noted, but Riven wasn't about to give up.

"Even if you did manage to change everyone's minds and got rid of every last weapon, peace still wouldn't last. Destruction is a part of human nature that can never be gotten rid of because it's instigated by fear. It's human nature. We can't accept what we can't see in ourselves. We fear it, we reject it and that is the beginning of war," Riven shot back. "And unfortunately, we're all born different, so even without weapons, we'll still find reason to fight."

"That's true," Brandon nodded.

"That's why we need to retrain the way people think," Helia continued off Riven's argument. "We need to stop people resulting to violence and war just because it's available to them."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Riven asked. "Get rid of all weapons?"

"If it comes to that."

"So are you saying that soldiers that no nothing but how to fight get discarded?"

"Soldiers that fought to obtain a sense of peace should believe in world they live in."

"You can't guarantee that. There are countless people out there whose lives centre around being used as weapons. People who are only able to acknowledge their existence on the battle field. The belief that peace is simply obtained by throwing away weapons and containing soldiers is wrong."

"That maybe so, but unless we start questioning ourselves and thinking of new diplomatic solutions we're only going to end up repeating history, and that's a history full of miserable battles. Unless we stop this process now, more soldiers will become necessary," Helia said, and there was nothing that Riven or anyone else listening to the debate could think of to argue that point. "You said before that as an artist, it's my job to speak the truth. Well that's not true because I don't get to decide what truth is. That's up for my audience to decide. My job to captivate them for however long I've asked for their attention and if I stumble into truth it's because I got lucky. All I know is that with war comes a sorrow that can never be forgotten, which in turn breeds new hatred and new battles in the future."

"Okay, so human kind can never forget the sorrow that has been caused by wars, but that still doesn't mean that they've ever stopped fighting," Riven pointed out. "In fact, even with all the pain and grief that comes with war, people still go so far as to glorifying it. You can't even speak of history without referring to the wars in each era as important events."

"That is true," Helia nodded. He was silent for a moment before asking, "So why do people fight anyway?"

"Huh?"

"Why do people fight?"

"I dunno," Riven confessed after a moment of thought. "Maybe people feel a sense of accomplishment through battle, and it's also a fact that the one's actually fighting are never seen as being tainted."

"So maybe the meaning of human lies within their will to fight?" Helia speculated.

"Maybe, maybe not. Maybe we're all just messed up," Riven shrugged, looking off to a point beyond Helia's left shoulder. "Is Lex eating an orange with a spoon?"

"I think he's just trying to get the skin off," Timmy said. "Or at least I hope his is."

"It's hard to tell with that boy," Brandon noted as the bell rang, signalling that lunch was over and that they needed to head for their next class. It wasn't until later that night when Riven and Helia were in their dorm that the debate they had had over lunch was raised again. Riven was sprawled out on his bed reading while Helia sat at his desk working on a sketch he had started halfway through the final class of the day instead of listening to what his professor was saying.

"So, you never got around to telling just how I can get Justin and his buddies to leave me alone," Helia said not looking up from his sketch.

"Yeah I did. We just gotta change your rep a bit and they'll back off."

"Riven, I told you before; I don't want to fight half the school just for the sake of a little bit of peace. I just don't believe in that kind of thing."

"Who said anything about half the school?" Riven asked. "There's this old saying which goes 'execute one enemy to warn a hundred'. If you just put your ideals aside for one fight and absolutely crush your opponent, people will back off."

"You honestly believe that?" Helia asked, twisting in his seat to look at his roommate.

"Course I do. We've got an assessment coming up of how good we work as a team in combat and I think we should use that opportunity. I'll even add a little incentive and get us placed against Justin's squad. I'm sure you won't mind beating the living snot out of him. I'll set it all up."

"You can do that?"

"Of course I can. What kind of a thief would I be if I couldn't breaking into Codatorta's office and rearrange his lesson plan to suit me? It'll be easy."

"I dunno."

"You can think about it for a day or so, but you're gonna come around eventually."

"Well, we'll see about that," Helia said, turning back around and then the room fell silent again.

* * *

Helia was usually never one to get stressed.

While his workload at Ossacip had been rather extensive – particularly their theory assignments which had in the past been accountable for Helia staying up till three in the morning every night for a week writing essays which often exceeded seventy pages (2) – Helia had always managed to keep a cool and level head during the demanding assessment period of their semester. But since transferring to Red Fountain, Helia had found that his stress levels had started to rise dramatically and they weren't even currently in an examination or assessment period. The constant stain against his ideals was slashing away at his confidence and he was close to simply calling it quits. Riven was attempting to help Helia become more settled at Red Fountain, but his methods were at such odds with Helia's views that the pacifist only felt that the pressure had intensified, not lessen.

_Execute one enemy to warn a hundred._

Helia knew there was logic behind Riven's thinking, but that just made it all the harder for Helia to be comfortable with. He couldn't say he was one thing and then go and do something else just because it was convenient. That would be like calling yourself a vegetarian and yet still eating meat.

Finally, unable to stand the suffocating air that lingered in the halls of Red Fountain, Helia sought solace at the Standing Stones Shrine of the Dryads. Constructed by the dryads centuries before the first stone of the original fortress of Red Fountain had been laid, the Standing Stones were the site of where several important events in the dryad calendar were held. Ever since the disappearance of the dryads, however, the site had become less sacred and more of a hang out place for students, given its convenient location half way between Red Fountain and Alfea. There were a few old stories about the stones being haunted, but if anything that just encouraged to students to the site, especially at midnight in the name of a dare.

While other students were quite content with lounging around the sacred stones, Helia had no desire to defile a site that was so sacred to an ancient and often forgotten race. He did, however, agree with the location the dryads had selected for their stones and it was one of Helia's favourite places to meditate.

Seating himself on a bolder in a shaded yet warm place under the green canopy of the trees, Helia steadied his breathing and focused on his heartbeat. Forcing all of his stressful thoughts out of his mind, Helia let his body still and for the first time in a long time he felt himself relax. He was just managing to slip into a pure, thoughtless serenity when he sensed someone on the edge of his awareness and heard a soft voice whisper his name.

"Helia."

Opening his eyes, Helia was almost ready to snap at the person that had shattered his meditation, but when he saw exactly who the person that interrupted him was, he felt himself slip from one trance like state to another.

Standing on the edge of the clearing, her stunning green eyes wide with surprise, was Flora. The soft sunlight that managed to filter through the branches light touched her hair, highlighting the gold strains that were often lost in other light. Cradled in her bronzed arms were a collection of books and papers – an indication that she had come to the Standing Stones for a chance to study outside – and hovering just behind her was the ever present Chatta, who instantly slipped behind a tree to allow the teens a chance to talk with her eavesdropping. The soft scent of jasmine drifted to Helia's senses causing a warm smile to spread across his lips almost subconsciously, an act that for some reason made Flora flush slightly.

"Huh?" Flora breathed, suddenly becoming extremely nervous. So much so that her books and papers she was carrying slipped out of her grasp. Getting to his feet, Helia quickly moved to help Flora collect her scattered belongings.

"Hey Flora. Let me help you," Helia offered, but Flora had managed to scramble her books together that all that remained was a letter in an envelope which was sealed with an elegant, pink flower. Helia had studied Linphean art, so he was well aware of the fact that they used different flowers to represent different things. There was a Flower of Sadness, a Flower of Compassion, a Flower of Good Luck and even a Flower of Ire. But when Helia recognized the flower that was sealed on the envelope, it made his heart stop for a second. Hesitantly, as if it was a dangerous snake, Helia picked up the letter.

Flora noticed the letter in his hands, and for some reason it made her eyes widen and her cheeks flush a few shades deeper. "Um . . . er . . . that's just . . . er . . ."

"The Crescent Flower of Love," Helia noted, standing. Flora followed suit.

"You know it?" Flora asked, looking both startled and delighted.

"It means this letter's for the one who has your heart," Helia said, and for some reason he felt his own heart clench and his tongue start to freeze up at the thought of this letter being for intended for some other boy back at Linphea, or worse, at Red Fountain. He was well aware of his attraction to Flora, but he was unused to the feeling of jealousy, so it left Helia in a very unfamiliar situation.

"Well yes but . . . er . . ."

"Well, I have to tell you that whoever's getting this letter is really a very lucky guy," Helia told her diplomatically, trying his hardest not to sound too jaded.

"Well actually . . . it's for my parents," Flora said. Helia instantly felt a wave of relief wash over him followed by one of confusion. There was a flower that symbolized the love of family in Linphea, and it wasn't the Crescent Flower of Love. But he didn't believe Flora would ever try to hide that fact that some other boy might have her heart so he accepted her word.

"Wow, that's very sweet. Here," Helia said, handing the letter back to her. He couldn't help but noticed how relieved she looked once the letter was out of his hands.

"Well, I'll see you later," Flora smiled nervously and although Helia would have liked to stay and talk with her longer, he recognized a dismissal when it was given to him.

"Bye," Helia nodded, turning and heading back to towards Red Fountain. It was a long walk, but Helia felt as if he needed it. Ever since he had transferred he had felt as if he had made a mistake. There were so many reasons for Helia to just give it all up and return to Ossacip where he felt more comfortable, but there was one reason to stay, and at the moment Helia was starting to think that it was all worth it. An hour later, Helia entered his room to find his room to find his roommate seated on his bed, his violet eyes fixed on the book that he had been reading the night before. Riven didn't even look up as Helia entered, but Helia knew that he was aware of his presence.

"Let's go ahead with it," Helia said simply. Riven looked up from his book to regard his roommate and without any need for a further explanation, Riven nodded.

"Alright, I'll arrange it."

* * *

"Alright! Now we get to see if you ladies have been paying attention for the last few weeks," Codatorta growled, looking over his notes. The subject they were covering in his class was Teamwork in Battle Situations which focused on using and blending the skills of individual members of a team while in battle. They touched on this subject each year, but every time it got more advanced and more difficult. "Get into your groups of three. Go!"

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Helia whispered sharply to Riven. They had already worked out their groups of three the day before and were given twenty-four hours to strategize the best form of attack for them. Helia's group consisted of himself, Riven and Lex who Helia was worried about due to the fact that the short student was yet to show any sign of intelligence since Helia had arrived at Red Fountain. But Riven assured him that, although stupid, Lex knew how to follow orders and that he was actually pretty good with his short staff – provided his didn't knock himself out with it, of course.

"Of course I am," Riven said, sounding a little insulted. "When you want anything technical or statistic, you go to Timmy. When you want something manipulative, conniving or illegal, you come to me."

"You are aware that none of those are good things, aren't you?"

"Oh, that's just a matter of perspective," Riven assured him as the last member of their group joined them. "You remember what we went through last night, Lex?"

"Yup, I remember," Lex assured them. They had gone through some plays the night before, and now all they had to do was wait until their group was called to see if they worked.

"Alright, Sky, Brandon and Timmy, you're up," Codatorta announced, checking his lesson sheets. "And you're up against Kane, Bourne and Sally."

"I've been meaning to ask; what's Sally's real name?" Helia asked. Riven opened is mouth to answer, but quickly closed it when he realised he didn't actually know what the answer was.

"I can't remember," he confessed. "We started calling him Sally in the first few weeks of freshmen year and it's just kinda stuck since then. I mean, even the teachers call him it."

The fight didn't last very long. Bourne, Kane and Sally may have been well schooled in the weapons and battle techniques, but there was just no way any of them could match the synchronization and team work which Brandon and Sky had mastered before they even arrived at Red Fountain, and when that skill was under the direction of Timmy's brilliant strategic mind, it made them an unstoppable force.

"The bout goes to Sky, Brandon and Timmy. Competitors shake hands and get off the arena so that we can get the next group going," Codatorta ordered, his eyes on his lesson sheet again. "Okay, we've got Riven, Helia and Lex verses Justin, Marcus and Rowan."

"Oh, this is going to be too easy," Justin grinned as the teams headed out into the arena. "You picked Paintbrushes and the Idiot, Riven? And here I thought that you liked to win."

"You're gonna be eating your words, Crow Boy," Riven promised the pointed nose boy with a sneer.

"With your crew? Not likely."

"Whatever," Riven shrugged off casually, but his eyes were hard and focused. At first glance, Riven's crew looked to be very relaxed and unprepared for the fight that was waiting for them at Codatorta's command, but on closer inspection, one could see that it was all a façade that they were putting on. Their bodies, although slouched, were tense and their fingers rested on their weapons, ready to be used in an instants notice.

"Just as a quick reminder, you're being graded on how well you combine the skills of your team. This is not a solo effort, Riven," Codatorta reminded them. Riven shot the professor an irritated and insult look, but he managed to keep his tongue still. "On my mark . . . begin!"

Now sooner had the words left Codatorta's lips, than Helia and Riven sprang into action. For this bout, Riven had forgone his sabre and instead went with his morning star and long knife, and with one fluid monition, Riven sent his morning star flying towards Rowan's left arm while Helia went for his right with his laser strings. The two string weapons wrapped themselves around Rowan's thick arms and with a well timed pull Riven and Helia yanked him clear off his feet and sent him flying towards Lex, who was standing slightly in front of his two team mates. He was facing side onto the fight, and he had his short staff raised over one shoulder like a baseball player. Rowan was nearly twice the size of Lex horizontality and he towered over him vertically, but Lex still managed to fell him with one hit when he swung his staff and collected the big lacrosse player directly under the ribs, effectively winding him. With a heavy crash, Rowan hit the floor and his breathless state made him completely helpless against Lex's staff which hit him sharply on the back of the neck, knocking him senseless.

"No way!" Justin hissed. Rowan was the muscle in their group. How could he be taken down by someone as small and stupid as Lex?

"One down, two to go," Riven grinned smugly. Rowan had been the one they had thought the longest on how to defeat since he had the advantage of weight that his other team mates didn't have, and yet he had fallen in a matter of seconds. This was so easy it also seemed cruel.

There was only one person in their grade that was shorter than Lex, and that person was Marcus. Cursed with the narrow facial features that make him resemble a rat, Marcus was a spiteful little creature with a wickedly intelligent mind. Like Timmy, Marcus could never match some of his classmates in physical strength, but what he lacked in muscle he made up for with intelligence. Timmy would never consider himself the type of person who had a rival, but if he did, there was no denying that it would be Marcus since they were always trying to best each other on the theory side of their classes. Marcus had been the one out of his team who had constructed their strategies, but all of their plays had revolved around having Rowan and his bulk.

"Now what?" Justin hissed through clenched teeth.

"I'm thinking," Marcus told him sharply, extending his shield in order to protect himself as he thought of some kind of game plan. Unfortunately for him, the other crew had been waiting for him to pull out his shield so they could begin their next play.

With a well practiced flick of his wrist, Riven sent his morning star slamming into the direct centre of Marcus shield with such force that it sent Marcus sliding backwards. Normally, Marcus would have been fine with simply losing a bit of ground, but the second Riven's morning star hit the shield, Helia lashed out with his laser stings and grabbed hold of one of Marcus's ankles which was enough to cause the little rat faced student to over balance.

That was Lex's queue. Shortly after knocking Rowan senseless, Lex had swapped his short staff for his secondary weapon; a bee kicker blaster much like Timmy's. He had already taken locked his aim on Marcus and the second both his feet were off the ground, Lex fired. His intent wasn't to hurt Marcus, rather to use the blast to build momentum to throw Marcus further backward. The rat faced boy bounced once and then fell out of the arena, officially disqualifying him for the fight.

"Are they always this easy?" Helia asked loudly enough for the rest of the class to hear. Riven had instructed him to do that because he knew it would make Justin mad, which would in turn make him stupid. Also because Riven assured him that sometime it pays to be arrogant.

Justin did become mad, and when that was coupled with desperation, it resulted in Justin making a very foolish action. Faster than the eye could follow, Justin pulled out his boomerang and hurled it into the air. The bent stick arched around and collected Lex on the back of the head. The short boys pale blue eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed onto the ground in an unconscious state next to the still dazed Rowan. Riven used his long knife to deflect Justin's boomerang before it could return back to its master, leaving him with only close range weapons. Helia used that moment of confusion to attack.

Like most laser string weapons, the laser string glove was primarily used for as a means of restraint. However, it also had the ability to be used much like a whip and talented people could actually merge the two functions together. Before Justin was even aware of it, one of Helia's laser strings latched itself onto his left ankle, and when Helia suddenly threw his arm upwards, the motion carried down the string like a wave, resulting in Justin being hurled up into the air by one ankle before crashing head first back onto the ground.

"Alright! That's enough!" Codatorta – who probably should have stopped the fight as soon as Lex was knocked unconscious – ordered. "Honestly boys, this is just an assessment! There is no need for you to kill each other!"

"Justin! You alright?" Marcus asked, rushing over to help his friend into a sitting position. Justin had one hand covering his face and leaking out from underneath it was a large amount of red liquid.

"Looks like we got ourselves a bleeder," W noted from his place on the sidelines with the rest of his class.

"Yup, it's a gusher!" Dave informed everyone loudly, trying not to sound too pleased about it.

"Shut up!" Codatorta shouted, crouching down in front of Justin. "Let me have a look, lad."

"Oh, that looks nasty," Bishop said when Justin lowered his hands. His face and the front of his uniform was stained crimson and his eyes were already turning black. His long nose – which was normally so straight and beak like – didn't look as straight as it normally did. It may have been a trick of the light, but then again, no one thought that was very likely.

"It looks like a break but I'm gonna send you to Doc just to make sure. Marcus, help him there and would someone drag Lex and Rowan there too. The last thing I need is Doc storming into my classroom and yelling at me again for neglecting duty of care to my students," Codatorta said before turning around to glare at Helia and Riven. "You two go to Saladin's office. Now!"

"I didn't do anything," Riven objected.

"Go!"

Wordlessly, Riven and Helia headed for Saladin's office while Justin was sent to the infirmary. Helia looked like he was about to be sick, while Riven looked quite relaxed. After all, this wasn't the first time he was sent to the headmaster's office, and it probably wasn't going to be the last. "Well, I think that went well."

The look Helia gave him was murderous.

* * *

After his students finished explaining what happened, Saladin sent Riven and Helia off with a warning not to be so rough during assessments. Riven had been spared any punishment do to the fact that had hadn't actually done anything wrong for once and since Helia had a clean record in regards to these types of things, Saladin could only assume it was an accident.

"I feel terrible," Helia admitted as the pair made their way from the headmaster's office to the junior common room. Yes, they had never actually intended to break Justin's nose but they had planned to defeat and utterly humiliate him. And while Helia had been okay with it before, his conscience was starting to kick in and the guilt was killing him.

Riven, however, had no such guilt. "Why? We got away with it, didn't we?"

"That doesn't make it okay, Riven. We broke his nose."

"So? He knocked Lex out cold. An eye for an eye."

"Lex knocks himself out at least once fortnight. And besides, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

"You're quoting fortune cookies to me now? Look Helia, it was an accident, get over it. You got a bunch of kids playing with weapons and being encouraged to attack one another by their teachers. You don't think that every now and then someone's going to get hurt?" Riven asked. "And besides, if anyone should be feeling lousy, it's me."

"You?"

"Yes. I've wanted to break that spoiled, little brat's beak-like nose since he got here and I got beaten to it by pacifist of all people. Do you know how embarrassing that is for me? A bloody goody-two shoes pansy beat me to the punch. And now even if I do get the chance to break his nose again, it's already been done. I'll be a copycat."

"My god, I didn't even consider it from your point of view," Helia spat sarcastically.

"Hey, don't take that attitude with me. I'm the one who's cut here."

"Riven, we broke his nose! Aren't you even feeling the slightest bit guilty?"

"Of course I don't. That guy's been an ass to everyone at this school since he got here. Apart from his goons, nobody likes him. I'm surprised they didn't all break out into cheers and applause when you broke that beak of his. If this doesn't get you some popularity points, nothing else will. The only way you could top it is if you somehow managed to get all the Vampirean Secret Dark Angels here for a visit," Riven informed him. "And besides, Justin will get his nose fixed. What else is his daddy's money good for?"

"I still feel bad," Helia said as they neared to common room.

"You'll get over it," Riven told him, hitting the door open only to discover virtually the rest of their class waiting for them on the other side.

"All hail the conquering hero!" Bourne shouted and was answered by a deafening cheer from the rest of the students in the room, coupled by a thundering applause. Asides from the lacrosse team, every junior and a couple students from other grades had crammed themselves into the junior common room, ready to congratulate Helia for being the one to finally break Justin's nose.

"Oh, you are kidding me," Helia gasped before being dragged forward into the crowd. It was as if he had just won a marathon or something. People keep slapping him hard on the back or seizing his hand to shake it until it felt as though his arm was about to fall off. Embarrassed and confused, Helia could only grin stupidly as countless congratulations washed down over him. Somewhere behind him, he could hear Riven say loudly that of course the entire thing was premeditated which as the complete opposite of what he was saying to Saladin just moments before.

"That was _brilliant_!" Toby exclaimed, pounding Helia on the back.

"Inspirational!" Kane agreed.

"Justin's _never_ going to be able to live this down!" Sally grinned widely.

"If only we could see it all again," Brandon sighed dramatically before pulling out a remote to the TV. "Oh wait, we can!"

Helia's cobalt eyes widened as the picture of the TV suddenly showed a recording of the fight between his squad and Justin's squad. "How did you get that?"

"Timmy was recording the fight on his PHA since it's always interesting whenever Riven goes head to head against Rowan," Sky explained. "Mind you, we weren't aware that we were recording history in the making. Now we can watch it over and over again."

"And Timmy even says we can put it in slow motion and watch it in reverse," Lex – who had regained consciousness – told them excitedly. "We're going to get hours of entertainment out if this!"

"Shut up! It's starting!" Dave ordered everyone when they got up to the part of the fight where Helia seized Justin around the ankle with his laser string gloves.

Even though he still felt guilty, Helia couldn't seem to stop himself for grinning.

* * *

_(1) That's on of my favourite moment out of Scrubs. It's classic Dr Cox _

_(2) A whole bunch of my friends had to do that during our final year at high school. I was smart and didn't take art as an elective. Too much theory work _

_The debate about peace and war and whether pacifism works or not was built up from a combination of quotes and ideas from Gundam Wing AC, The West Wing and Full Metal Alchemist the Movie, although the biggest influence I had was an incredible duologue taken from the Gundam Wing movie, Endless Waltz where Heero and Wufei are fighting in their mobile suits in space just above Earth's atmosphere as they discuss whether human beings can ever really have peace. That scene is easily my favourite anime scene ever _

'_History is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever' – Mariemaia Kushrenada, Gundam Wing_

_TBC._


	14. The Wrong Righter's

_Okay, word of warning guys; this chapter is looooooonnnnnngggggg. It's so very, very long. It's like a story within a story, so just keep in mind that you may not be able to read it in one sitting. You may have to get up and give yourself a little intermission from time to time. And that's fine because it is so long. _

_You've been warned. Good luck to you!_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Fourteen – The Wrong Righter's **

"Ready to go?" Brandon asked, closing his bag and fastening the buckle. Sky glanced at his squire before nodding and closed up his own bag.

"Yes, I suppose so," he sighed. Raising his blonde head, Sky looked at the other two boys that were in his dorm room, watching him and Brandon pack. "You sure that you two can't come?"

"Can't and don't want to," Riven said bluntly, not even bothering to life his eyes from the pages of the book that was in front of him.

"Sorry Sky, but this weekend will be the only chance I have to install and trial the new upgrades to the squad ship I have planned," Timmy explained more gently with an apologetic smile. "But I'm sure you won't need us. After all, these are your parents we're talking about. Would they really dismiss your girlfriend just because she doesn't come from as plentiful realm as Quartz?"

Sky flinched at the mere mention of his former fiancées home-realm and he suddenly felt heavy, as if all of Quartz's plentiful gem mines were weighting down on him. "You clearly don't know my parents."

"Well, at the very least, it should be an interesting weekend," Riven commented. Sky's blue eyes narrowed and he was just about to snap at his friend when someone else suddenly appeared in their doorway.

"Weren't you ever told as a child that silence is golden?" Helia asked his roommate calmly.

"The only gold I was interested in as a child were the ones in other people's pockets," Riven replied with a wickedly sly grin, shocking the three other boys in the room. Riven was never one to even discuss his past let alone make light of it, but a weird friendship that no one had seen coming had started to develop between Helia and Riven, and it had resulted in Riven acting in ways he rarely done before.

"Listen, Doc's doing a workshop this weekend on field medics," Helia informed his roommate. "Wonna come sign up?"

"Not really."

"You could do with the extra credit."

Riven groaned. "Fine."

"What about the rest of you?"

"Sorry, but I'm busy," Timmy said.

"And me and Sky have plans," Brandon told the art student before glancing at the clock. "Which we should probably get going for if we're gonna get ahead of traffic."

"Right, let's go," Sky agreed, swinging his bag over his shoulder. "See you guys later."

* * *

"Have you noticed Riven's been spending a lot more time with Helia recently?" Brandon asked as he and Sky headed for Red Fountain's garage so they could grab their levi bikes before heading over to Alfea to pick the girls up.

"Well, they are roommates now," Sky pointed out. "It's probably a good thing. Maybe some of Helia's gentle nature will rub off on him."

"I doubt it" Brandon _scoff_ed, kicking the ground as he walked. "And I don't like the idea of Riven having a bromance."

"Bromance?" Sky repeated. Where did Brandon come up with these words?

"Yeah, it's when a guy makes a new friend and he gets so caught up in the new friendship that he forgets about his old ones," Brandon explained, his face miserable.

"Riven's not going to forget about us," Sky assured his squire, reaching over the clasp his shoulder in a comforting manner. "No one annoys Riven quite like you."

"That's sweet of you to say, but haven't you realised how Riven hardly ever spends any time with us out of class? He's been doing it all year, and now Helia's in the picture who knows what's gonna happen."

"Brandon, I know how concerned you get about your friends, but you gotta trust that we're not just gonna ditch you again like what happened after the Day of the Royals," Sky promised. Although Brandon never came out and said it, Sky knew that the squire had been cut deeply at the way their squad had fallen apart the year before. He and Riven had always been kinda close, so it had really upset Brandon to see his friend get messed up with the Trix like that. And then when the whole switching identities with Sky came out during the Day of the Royals, the squire had found himself ostracized from the people he cared about most. He didn't want to go through that again. "Brandon, we're not going any where – me, Timmy, Riven – we're not gonna walk out on you again."

"I know," Brandon said, shifting uncomfortably. "But I still don't like it."

"Did you ever think that if you just gave Helia a chance, you might like him? Sure, he's quiet and keeps to himself, but that might be a welcome change from Timmy with his tecno talk and Riven with his mood swings."

"And you when you whine about Bloom," Brandon smirked slyly.

"I do not whine."

"Yes you do. 'Ohhh, I'm engaged but I wonna be with Bloom. Why don't my parents like her? Oh Brandon, now she's making kissy faces at Avalon instead of me. Boo-hoo-hoo'."

"I don't sound like that."

"In my head you do."

"Whatever. Let's just go already."

It didn't take long for the two specialists to arrive at the gates of Alfea. Once inside, they quickly found the two fairies that were travelling with them to Eraklyon to meet Sky's parents for dinner. The girls looked to be coming back from a lesson that ad been held outside and when they noticed Sky pull up they made their way over to him.

"Hello ladies," Sky greeted with a wide smile to Bloom, Flora and their pixies. The four teenagers and pixies would be travelling to Eraklyon via one of Red Fountain's space ships that was waiting for them at Magix's space port which was why they still needed their levi bikes. Plus, they would come in handy once they got to Eraklyon since Sky preferred his bike to a town car any day.

"You're early, Sky!" Chatta said loudly. "We haven't had a chance to get ready yet!"

"I was hoping we could beat the intergalactic traffic," Sky explained as Brandon pulled up along side him. But girls would be girls, and the two fairies didn't seem too keen on the idea. Especially Bloom, who Sky knew was nervous about tonight since the only other time she had seen Sky's parents was when she had ruined the Day of the Royals last year by attacking Sky's then fiancé Diaspro.

"But we have to change," Flora protested glancing down at the clothes she had worn to class. Her outfit might have been okay to wear in front of Palladium but not in front of a King or Queen.

"It's just going to be a casual dinner," Sky reminded them, but then it dawned on him that casual dinners at his place really weren't that casual. But he really didn't care what the girls wore since he believed that all members of the Winx Club were more beautiful then all the ladies of court combined. "Besides, you already look lovely."

"Yeah, you do," Brandon agreed and it wasn't just out of politeness.

"Well thanks," Bloom beamed. Sky could tell by the way her eyes glowed that – although nervous – the Earth girl had been looking forward to tonight as well. "I'm excited to finally see the place where you grew up, Sky."

"I really hope we get a chance to check out the royal gardens," Flora said sweetly.

"I've already arranged for us to take a tour after dinner," Sky informed her since he had already guessed that that would be something she would like to do.

"Fabulous," Lockette grinned.

"I've been reading up all about Eraklyon," Bloom admitted to her boyfriend. "I'm so psyched."

"You'll love it," Sky assured her as Bloom climbed on the back of his bike and Flora did the same on Brandon's. "Are you girls ready?"

"Ready," Bloom said.

"Let's go," Flora agreed before leaning over to give a personal message to Brandon. "Oh, Stella said to tell you 'hugs and kisses'."

Brandon forced out a laugh, but he didn't believe a single word of it. Originally, Stella was supposed to be coming with them instead of Flora, but when the princess had pulled out due to 'homework' reasons, the flower fairy had stepped in as emotional support for Bloom.

Stella still wasn't ready to apologise, and until she was, neither was Brandon.

* * *

Although she had said that she was looking forward to going to Eraklyon, Sky could tell that Bloom was nervous and he had a feeling it had everything to do with the fact that his parents lived in that realm. Bloom had only ever met them once before and during that meeting Bloom had been too busy beating the pants off Diaspro to allow any proper introductions. And even through Sky had explained the reason for the misunderstanding between the two fairies, his parents were still less than impressed with the Earth girl, especially since she was the main motive behind Sky wanting to break off a very profitable arrangement between Eraklyon and Quartz.

"Don't worry Bloom," Sky said in an effort to try and comfort her. "It's just a dinner, that's all, and then we'll sneak off into town and go see Brandon's family. You'll love them."

"Yeah, but it's not Brandon's family I'm worried about," Bloom confessed, nervously chewing on one of her fingernails and glancing out the window as they flew through the blackness of space. "I'm not exactly your parents favourite person, especially your mom."

"Oh his mom doesn't like anyone," Brandon assured her. "I've been best friends with Sky since we were kids and she still doesn't like me."

"But are you the one who's dating her son?"

"You know, you'd be surprised how many people have asked me that," Brandon said with a sly grin, trying to get her to lighten up and relax. The red head shot the squire a soft smile but it quickly returned to concerned look.

"I'm nervous about Eraklyon manners. I hope I don't make a fool of myself."

"Just remember to chew with your mouth closed," Chatta advised loudly.

"Just be yourself and you'll be perfect," Sky told her encouragingly. He wished that his parents didn't have to be so daunting, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. Outside of the princes and princesses that attended Alfea and Red Fountain, Bloom had not met any royalty. Stella had apparently been teaching her a few pointers on bowing and addressing the king and queen, but there was only so much they could do in the comfort of their dorm room. The best way to feel comfortable around royalty was to expose yourself to it. Sky was contemplating telling her about the way Brandon kept screwing up whenever he met the king and queen when he was young and he and Sky had only just started becoming friends, but any chance of recalling such delightfully humiliating memories was cut off when a little seat which was in front of the control panel spun around and Sky realised that they had a pixie stowaway on their ship.

"Are mullets in style in Eraklyon or should I try something else?" the little pixie asked in a serious sounding voice. Sky had thought he was familiar with all the pixies, but he couldn't recall ever meeting any that looked like this one. And apparently, he wasn't the only one.

"Who's that?" Bloom asked, staring at the pixie in shock. The pixie stared right back at her and after a second, her attire and appearance changed out of the mullet wearing space trekker look into one that everyone recognized. Dark hair, yellow glasses and an outfit that resembled a bumble bee could only belong to one pixie. Zing grinned impishly at the teenagers, before returning back into her trekkers look. "Oh Zing."

"Hi!" Zing greeted cheerfully.

"We're, er, approaching Eraklyon," Sky informed the others. He was still a bit thrown by the unexpected appearance of Zing and he couldn't help but wonder what his parents would think about the extra houseguests. While he did like the pixies – particularly Zing with her cookey attitude – his mother had never bonded with a pixie which meant that their exposure to pixies had been rather limited. And there was no denying that pixies could get sort of annoying after a while, especially Chatta. "We'll be there in approximately two minutes."

"Yay!!" Chatta cheered loudly, and Sky shuttered at the thought of how his mother would act when she met the enthusiastic pixie. However, he didn't have time to worry about that; he had a ship to land.

"Alright everybody, let's prepare for landing."

* * *

The front gates Royal Palace of Eraklyon was located only a short distance from the capital city, but given the massive size of the estate, the ride took a lot longer than one might initially have thought. Game hunting had been apart of Eraklyain culture, so the Royal estate had been big enough to house several species of animals. There were open fields where rabbits and herds of deer grazed. In the large Farthingwood Forest (1) lived foxes, boars and countless birds, and the large lake was filled with many diverse and tasty fish that regular found its way onto the royal table.

So when the palace finally came into view, Sky felt a wave of relief wash through him at the thought of finally being able to relax at his home after a long trip. But as soon as that relief hit him, it instantly vanished and was replaced with an uneasy feeling. "What's going on?"

"Is something wrong?" Bloom asked from her place behind him on the back of his levi bike.

"There could be."

"The high security car is out front," Brandon noted, feeling the same uneasiness as his prince.

"Is that bad?" Flora asked, and Brandon could feel her tense behind him from the unknown that was waiting for them at the palace.

"That car means that the palace is basically in a lockdown. No one is allowed out of the palace and the only people they allow in are the scores of security personal that instantly come from the city to guard the palace and the surrounding gardens," Brandon explained, slowing down to a stop out the front steps. Waiting there for them were two men that Sky had known his entire life; obviously the elder of the two, Leopold, the Chief of Staff (2), and Alcester, Captain of the Royal Guard and Eraklyon's most talented Sword Master.

"Welcome home, Your Highness," Leopold greeted Sky with a formal bow which Alistair copied. Sky had begged them time and time again not to do that, but even after all these years he had only just got them down to a formal nod, once the initial meetings were out of the way of course.

"Leo? What's going on?" Sky asked, dismounting his bike and climbing the stairs.

"The grounds are on high alert," Leopold informed him in an emotionless, factual voice. "Your parents are waiting for you in the throne room. If you and your guests wouldn't mind following me right now, I'll take you to them so that they can debrief you on the situation."

"Are they okay?" Sky asked, a sick feeling in his stomach. Like most powerful families, there had always been the threat of assassination attempts lingering over his family, but that never made it any easier for Sky to deal with. He may not always get along with his family – particularly his mother – but he still loved them and never wanted anything to happen to them.

"They are both fine," Leopold assured him as they walked down a grand looking hallway.

"We have them both under the protection of my finest men," Alistair said firmly, his right hand resting on the hilt of his sword out of pure habit. "You yourself were watched and followed from the second you entered Eraklyain air space."

"Really? I didn't see anyone," Brandon admitted. While he might not as been so honest around Sky's parents, he was comfortable enough with Leopold and Alistair to be. Being best friends with Sky had lead to the squire being exposed to Leopold a lot and he knew Alistair since Brandon's father work underneath him as one of the palace's royal guards.

"They're not called the secret service for nothing, Brandon," Alistair said in a completely serious tone of voice. Brandon noticed Bloom and Flora exchanged a look, uncertain whether they should smile or not.

The Royal Throne Room of Eraklyon was just like it had been when Sky had left it at the end of summer; a big room with two thrones at the end of it. Sure, there were several priceless relics that lined the room along with a few ancient Eraklyain artefacts, but to Sky it was just like walking into his lounge room. In fact, the only thing that stood out the Sky was the fact that three times as many guards lining the room and the concerned look on his parents faces.

"You Majesties, presenting his Royal Highness Crowned Prince Sky of Eraklyon, Master Brandon, first Royal Squire of Eraklyon, Miss Flora of the Realm of Linphea and Miss Bloom of Earth and the Last Princess of Sprax," Leo announced formally from the doorway. Only after that was done were the four teenagers allowed to enter the throne room.

"What a mouthful," Brandon muttered to Flora, trying his best not to move his lips too much.

"How did he know who we are?" Flora asked, also trying to make the fact that they were talking as inconspicuous as possible.

"Nothing ever gets passed Leo."

"Welcome home, son. It's been far too long since summer ended. And welcome to your friends. I ask that you all make yourself comfortable and treat this place as if it was your home," the king greeted. His words were inviting enough – if not a little premeditated – but there was something about his tone of voice and his expression that told everyone that the King of Eraklyon was distressed. Beside him, his wife was as cold and emotionless as a marble statue.

"Father, is everything alright?" Sky asked, skipping the formalities that he knew his parents would be expecting. "Why is that palace on lock down?"

The king looked at his son carefully, and then shifted his gaze to the three teens and three pixies that accompanied his son. Out of the corner of his eye, Brandon noticed the two girls tense ever so slightly, and frankly, he couldn't blame them. As a child, Brandon had always been absolutely terrified of the King of Eraklyon, which of course had resulted in him making the most incredible stuff ups one could imagine whenever he was around. Over the years, Brandon had gotten over his nerves a bit, but he still got the feeling that the king did not approve of his only sons close connection to a commoner. And as for Sky's mother, well, Brandon was fairly sure that she didn't like anyone.

Needless to say, that everyone breathed a little easier when the king lifted his gaze off of them and focused it back on his son.

"Twelve hours ago, our intelligence uncovered proof that the crime lord Yousha Nowa has illegally entered Eraklyon and has been hiding out in an unused lodge on the furthest edges of Farthingwood Forest," the king informed his son, his expression grave and serious.

"What? You kidding?" Sky gasped, looking at Alistair for confirmation. He had no idea who Yousha Nowa was, but he knew what it took to earn the title crime lord.

"It's true, you highness," Alistair nodded, always formal before his king and queen no matter how much the prince begged him to be otherwise. "It would explain how he managed to stay hidden from Alliance Police since he escaped from their surveillance three months ago."

"And I'm afraid that not the worst news," the king said regretfully. "We believe that he and his men have kidnapped Princess Diaspro of Quartz who was in Eraklyon on diplomatic matters."

"They kidnapped Diaspro?!" Sky asked, his blue eyes wide in a combination of shock and horror.

"Yes son."

"And when exactly did this happen?"

"This morning," the king answered, handing something to one of his footman who, without needing to be ordered to, complied with his kings wishes to pass the object onto the prince. "The kidnappers sent this."

Sky opened his hand and looked down at the object that the footman had just given him. It was an elegant, one of a kind brooch – though rather plain compared to the jewellery that came out of Quartz – but it had belonged to the Royal House of Eraklyon of generations so it was a priceless gift and not one that would be disregarded lightly. "This is the brooch I gave her."

"The kidnappers must think that you two are still engaged," his father concluded. "Diaspro's parents are crushed. I've assured them that we'll do everything we can. Look, this is the ransom note."

"No," Sky gasped when he looked at the curled piece of paper his father was holding up. From a distance, Sky couldn't read everything, but there were a few words that did jump out at him, and none of them were very pleasant.

"You can count on us to help, your majesty," Brandon instantly volunteered. He had never really gotten along with Diaspro, but as a future hero, he couldn't stand by and let anything bad happen to her.

"I'll lead the rescue mission!" Sky said firmly.

"We won't leave till you find you daughter . . ." Brandon said at the same time, but he froze halfway through the term 'daughter-in-law' when he realized that Diaspro was not the kings daughter-in-law, nor would she ever be if Bloom and Sky continued on the way they were. (3)

"You are no longer Diaspro fiancée, son," the king reminded Sky. "You are not going to do anything."

Raising her head for the first time since the subject of the kidnapping, the queen looked up and observed her guests with cold, emotionless eyes. "Don't worry, dear. The royal guard will take care of it. We just have to hope for the best."

"I can't just sit here and hope for the best when Daspro's in trouble!" Sky said sharply. "I'm going to go find her!"

"Excuse me," Bloom piped up nervously. "But if I may just suggest that maybe – "

"Silence!" Sky mother commanded like a cracking whip. Everyone cringed at the sharp tone of the queen, and Bloom flinched as if she had been hit. "You can't address the court without permission."

"Sky, we're holding a press conference in an hour," the king informed his son. "Go get your formal cape right now."

"I'm sorry dad, but I have to go find her," Sky said, turning and bolting out of the throne room.

"Sky!" Brandon called after him, but the prince was already gone.

"Get back here!" his mother shouted, but her attempts were as fruitful as Brandon's had been.

"Wait! I'll help you!" Bloom called, turning to follow after him. Hesitating for a moment, Bloom looked back at the King and Queen of Eraklyon uncertainly. This was not how she pictured her first proper meeting Sky's parents to go. Not only did Sky's mother greet her with the warm of a glacier, but now her boyfriend was running off the save his ex. Yeah, not the ideal dinner date. With a gloomy look, Bloom turned and ran after her boyfriend.

Brandon felt terrible as he watched Bloom chase after Sky. He knew that she had been worried about tonight and that it had taken a lot of pleading for Sky to get her to agree to this, and now it was all getting messed up because of some snotty little princess who Sky used to be engaged too and who Bloom had always felt in competition with ever since she had first learnt of Sky's relationship with her. The squire noticed Leopold and Alistair exchange a look before Alistair silently slipped out off the room and followed after Sky to try and talk some reason into him. Exchanging a worried glace of their own, Brandon and Flora smoothly bowed and waited for the King and Queen to dismiss them.

But the royal couple had other things on their mind.

"This might not be so bad," the queen finally said to the king, completely ignoring the two teens who wished for nothing more than to be excused so they could go after their friends. "Have you ever heard of heroes syndrome, my dear?"

"It's when heroes fall for someone they rescue," the king recalled, before catching onto what his wife was hinting at. "I suppose that could happen with Sky and Diaspro and then they could get engaged again."

"Not likely," Brandon muttered out of the corner of his mouth to Flora. His King and Queen clearly had no idea about who their son was and what he wanted out of life.

Brandon couldn't be sure if the king heard him or not, but at that moment, he looked up and finally noticed the two teens who were still in mid bow. "Brandon, Miss Flora, you may be excused."

"Thank you, your Majesty," Brandon and Flora said in unison, bowing again before heading for the door.

* * *

"Sky!"

The blonde prince paused when he heard his name and when he looked over his shoulder he saw familiar fiery red hair running towards him. "Bloom?" he said as the Last Princess of Sparx ran down the corridor and came to a stop right in front of him, panting heavily. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to help you," Bloom told him, though that only seemed logical. What else was she going to do? Sit around and knit until Sky found the time for her?

Sky smiled warmly at her offer. He knew she didn't like Diaspro – and frankly, Sky didn't blame her – but it was just like Bloom to volunteer her help for someone who was in need. "Thanks Bloom. You're awesome."

"You're welcome, but also in saying that, don't you think we should leave this to Alistair and the royal guards?" Bloom asked. "I mean, they've already kidnapped royalty once for ransom. Do we really want to give them the opportunity to get their hands on another one?"

"The girl has an excellent point," a deep voice pointed out as Alistair marched down the corridor to where the couple stood. A second later, he was joined by Brandon and Flora. "Yousha Nowa is a dangerous man and I will not risk the life of our realms only heir to the throne just so you can go play hero."

"I am not playing hero," Sky snapped, glaring at the Captain of the Guards. "I go to Red Fountain just like you did when you were in high school, and it is my duty to try and rescue anyone in danger. I will not shirk that task just so you can sleep easy."

"Don't be foolish, you highness," Alistair said firmly though not insultingly. "You are a prince. You have a higher calling."

Sky was struck by how familiar those words were, and suddenly a memory flashed through his mind of when Diaspro arrived just before the fall of Red Fountain during the Great Witch Invasion last year offering him a way out, which he point blankly refused. Well, he didn't run from his duty as a hero then, and he certainly wasn't going to run from it now. "I ­_am_ going to find Diaspro and the people who kidnapped her."

But Alistair wasn't going to back down from his duty either. "No, you're going to go to your room and get ready for the press conference like you're father ordered you to."

"I'm not going to the press conference."

"Fine, then go to your room and wait there until we give you the all clear," Alistair ordered, looking over his shoulder and spotting two guards that had followed them. "I have to go be with your parents for this. These guards are going to watch you until I get back so don't try anything stupid. Am I clear?"

Sky continued to stare stonily at the Captain of the Guards, not saying anything.

"Am I clear?" Alistair repeated.

"Fine," Sky finally caved. Alistair nodded in approval and although it appeared as if he had nothing else to say, the Captain remained where he was. Sky rolled his eyes. "You're free to go."

"Thank you, your highness," Alistair bowed his head and then left the teens in the care of his two guards.

Brandon waited until Alistair was gone before saying, "You're still gonna go after Diaspro, aren't you."

"Yes, I am," Sky told him.

"I knew it," Brandon sighed. "Oh well, I guess I better go with you to make sure you don't get yourself kidnapped."

"Would I able to go to the Royal Gardens?" Flora asked suddenly. "I just thought of something that might be able to help us."

"Sure, I'll send one of the guards to show you the way," Sky said, gesturing one of the guards over to him. And with that, Bloom and Flora headed towards the gardens while Brandon and Sky went their separate ways to get ready for the mission that was awaiting them.

* * *

After the guard had successfully escorted Bloom and Flora to the gardens, he was returning to his post of guarding the prince when he crossed paths with the Queen of Eraklyon, who ordered him to allow her son to escape his room so that he could go a rescue Princess Diaspro of Quartz.

* * *

Once he had grabbed a few items from the royal armoury that might just come in handy in their mission to rescue Diaspro and grabbed his Red Fountain uniform, Brandon headed down the familiar corridor that lead to Sky's quarters, accompanied by the pixie Zing. He smiled softly at the guards which stood against the wall opposite the door that they returned before dropping back into their rather inattentive stance. Brandon wondered at this before pushing it the back of his mind and opened the door. Inside the room, Sky was packing a bag, but he looked up when his squire entered.

"I'm ready to go," Brandon said softly enough so that it didn't carry across the hallway. Zing flew into the room and Brandon closed the door so that he and his best friend could speak freely. "Are you all set?"

Sky nodded slightly, but Brandon could see in his blue eyes that Sky was distracted by something. "Do you think Bloom's upset that I want to rescue Diaspro?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure she understands," Zing told him, jigging around merrily, though Brandon had to disagree with her. Bloom had looked rather troubled after Sky had run off with the intent of hunting down Diaspro and the people who took her, but that was a matter for Bloom and Sky to work out between themselves.

Sky smiled at the pixie and patted her on the head fondly before turning his attention back to the task that was at hand. "Alright, now what do we know about this Yousha Nowa dude?"

"He's kidnapped royalty before and he's got an army of forest ninjas," Brandon informed his best friend. Caught up in the moment, Zing transformed herself into a ninja, complete with a bo staff and a heart eye patch over one eye. Sky laughed out loud as she twirled her staff around her, looking like she was itching for a fight. "It looks like Zing is ready."

"Are Bloom and Flora coming with us?" Sky asked.

Brandon shook his head. "They've gone out looking for some flower called poppy portalus. Flora read about it when Bloom was looking up on Eraklyon. She says it should be able to help us find Diaspro."

"Alright. Well, we better get moving," Sky suggested, standing up to full height and swinging his bag over one shoulder.

"Right," Brandon nodded. "Those two guards outside are watching the door so we can't get out that way."

"Well then, it looks like we're slipping out the window and jumpin' the palace walls."

"Some things with you never change," Brandon laughed, before following his prince towards the window.

* * *

"This is just like old times, ain't it?" Brandon asked after several minutes of walking through the darkness of Farthingwood Forest, sounding a little too cheerfully for a rescue mission. Both of them were now changed into their uniforms, and the dark blue was helping them blend into the dark undergrowth.

Sky looked back over his shoulder sharply, but he didn't stop walking. "What?"

"Remember when we were little we used to always play here? All them games of us pretending we were part of the Zodiac Fighters? They were fun," Brandon reminisced.

"Brandon," Sky sighed, but his squire wasn't listening to him.

"I've still got all my Zodiac comic books, you know? And I found out Timmy was into them when he was a kid too."

"Brandon."

"I can remember wishing so that the Zodiac Fighters were real so badly. I mean, I know it was a cartoon and all, but that Virgo was one hot heroine. Scorpio was too, I guess, if you were into that whole dominatrix thing."

"Brandon!" Sky finally snapped.

"What?"

"We're on a rescue mission."

"I know. I'm just talking, that's all."

"Well does it have to be about the bloody Zodiac Fighters?"

"Sorry," Brandon grumbled rather bitterly, a bit offended at the way Sky had insultingly brushed off a very sacred part of both their childhood. "What do you want to talk about then?"

"I don't know," Sky snapped back sharply. "How 'bout the fact that we managed to escape out of the palace main grounds while it was on lock down without anyone spotting and stopping us. Doesn't that seem even the slightest bit odd to you?"

"Yeah, kinda," Brandon nodded. "But then again, not really."

"What are you babbling about?"

"It's just a hunch. Well, not even a hunch really. More like a little niggling at the back of my – "

"Brandon! Out with it!"

"You're mother wants you to rescue Diaspro in the hopes that you'll get heroes syndrome with her and the two of you can get engaged again," Brandon said very quickly.

"What?!" Sky exclaimed.

"You're mother – "

"I heard what you said. I'm saying 'what' to the fact that my mother would think that I would fall into something as stupid as heroes syndrome," Sky spat, walking forward with more heat than he had been a minute ago. "Heroes syndrome. Ha! What a load a crud."

"Well it has been documented that heroes have left their wives and family for a girl they've rescued."

"Please, it's a fairytale that girls cling too. And no matter what story it may be, they're always the same. It's always about some cold, jaded, arrogant hero whose whole life gets turned around when he finds some sweet, caring, independent yet helpless damsel. It's so ridiculous."

"Okay, you better be channelling Riven right now or else I have no idea where this jaded perception on the world has come from."

"It's not the world that's got me so pissed off. It's heroes' syndrome."

"Is it?"

"What else would it be?"

"Diaspro."

Sky was silent for a moment before saying, "I just hate it how they think we're gonna get back together. Not that we were ever really together to begin with. We were just engaged to be together. Can't they see that I'm happy with Bloom?"

"Well, to be fair, they've never actually seen you with Bloom," Brandon pointed out. "I mean, tonight was the first time they were actually going to meet her since that whole thing with the Day of the Royals doesn't really count since Bloom was too busy kicking Diaspro's ass for proper introductions."

"I just can't stand it. Why do my parents have to be so unfair?"

"Ah, the age old riddle that has been plaguing teenagers everywhere since the dawn of the universe."

"Couldn't you at least try to take this seriously?"

"C'mon Sky. Chillax."

"Chillax?" Sky repeated. "Are you channelling Musa now?"

"You never know. And don't get any ideas of us hooking up, Riv," Brandon grinned impishly before turning serious for the sake of his suffering prince. "Look, you'll be fine. Just suck it all up, focus and put all your energy into proving your parents wrong."

"What?" Sky asked. He thought they were on a rescue mission, not starting a teenaged rebellion against his parents.

"Prove to them that you can rush in, save the damsel in distress and then send her packing so you can sit down and have a pleasant dinner with your girlfriend who you adore from the top of fiery red head down to her little, earthy toes," Brandon told him. "I believe that is generally referred to as having your cake and eating it too."

"That sounds like a good plan," Sky nodded.

"Of course it is. And just so you know, I could really go for a piece of cake right about now."

"Brandon," Sky said in a warning tone.

"What? In case you haven't looked at your watch, now would be the time when we would be having our mains brought out to us."

"_Shh."_

"And it's been ages since we last ate."

"No, seriously, _shh_. I thought I heard something"

The two heroes in training froze, looking around the dark forest for any sign of their enemy. Sky silently cursed the fact that he and Brandon had been talking so loudly instead of focusing on their mission, because even though he couldn't see nor hear anything, he knew someone was out there.

"Huh?" Sky muttered when he finally pinpointed the sound of someone moving around in front of him, but before he could signal anything to Brandon, two heavily armoured forest ninjas dropped out of the trees and crouched on the ground in front of the two teens. They were quickly joined by several more ninjas, all of which were wearing identical armour. But Sky wasn't going to let that frighten him off. "Let's go!"

Extending their phantom blades, the two teens ran forward to meet their enemy head on, but the ninjas were completely in sync with one another so they quickly moved to gain an advantage. Jumping up into there air with such strength that they were able to reach heights that most morals could never achieve without wings, the forest ninjas hurled handfuls of ninja stars down upon their opponents. Brandon and Sky were able to deflect the stars with their swords but no sooner had they survived that attack than the ninjas landed in a circle around them and the real fight began.

Sky soon found himself crossing blades with one ninja who – true to his training – was fast, strong and incredibly agile. Brandon swung his broadsword at another ninja who easily jumped out of danger. Glancing over at Sky, Brandon was too distracted making sure his prince was alright to notice another ninja sneak up behind him. In fact, Brandon wasn't even aware that he was in any trouble until a green phantom wire suddenly looped itself around his neck and proceeded to cut off his airways. Shock and panic cause Brandon to drop his broadsword, but then his combat training kicked in and the squire wasted no time elbowing the ninja in the face. The tension around Brandon's instantly disappeared as the ninja stumbled backwards. Eager for some payback, Brandon spun around a jabbed the ninja in the face with his left hand and then followed through with a sound punch from his right. The ninja crumpled to the ground, leaving the victorious Brandon standing over him.

"And that's how I roll," Brandon said smugly to the unconscious ninja before turning his attention back to Sky.

The Prince was yet to defeat his opponent, and at the moment it was obvious that the ninja had the upper hand in this battle. With clear, clean swishes of his golden katana, the ninja was forcing the Red Fountain student backwards towards a large boulder. Sky was pushing himself to his limit to try and block all the attacks that were coming at him and maybe turn his moves into some more offensive ones, but all chances of that happening vanished when the back of his heel hit a small, seemingly unimportant rock. Sky's balanced wavered, and before he could catch himself, the prince fell backwards and slammed his back into the boulder that the ninja was trying to drive him into. The impact was enough to cause Sky to drop his phantom blade and for all the air to leave his lungs. Completely winded, Sky struggled to recover as the ninja moved in to finish him off.

With a loud battle cry, the ninja leapt into the air and allowed gravity to bring him back down with his katana out in front of him. With nowhere left to run, the Crowned Prince of Eraklyon would soon find himself skewered on the end of his katana.

Sky blue eyes widened as he watched the ninja descend down upon him, and he couldn't stop a scream from escaping his lips. Thinking fast, Sky quickly moved to his left just as the ninja landed. The katana embedded itself in the boulder in the exact same place that Sky's head had been only seconds before. Scrambling to his feet, Sky moved in to punch the now weaponless ninja hard in the stomach, effectively winding the forest ninja who dropped to the ground, clutching his stomach.

"Tell me, where is Diaspro?" Sky demanded, towering over the ninja with an expression and a tone that he only used when he was being completely serious.

Sensing this, the ninja decided to be totally honest with the prince. "We don't have her."

"What?"

"Another group of ninja got her before we could," the ninja explained.

"You mean like another bunch of Yousha Nowa ninja?" Sky asked as Brandon joined him. The rest of the forest ninja had slipped away into the darkness, leaving only the one that Brandon had punched out and the one that was speaking behind.

"No, these guys call themselves the Wrong Righter's. Yousha Nowa's only pretending he has Diaspro so he can collect the ransom."

Sky gasped loudly. "And where are these Wrong Righter's now?"

"If we knew that, wouldn't we'd have Diaspro by now?" the ninja pointed out.

"Well, aren't you a big load of help?" Brandon muttered, folding his arms across his chest.

"We better get back to the palace," Sky suggested. "As soon as when get these two into custody of the royal guards, we can go find the girls and see if they've come up with anything."

"Right," Brandon nodded. "How do we do that?"

"Er . . ." Sky stammered, glancing at the two ninja's. It was going to be hard enough to move the unconscious one, and there was no grantee that the one that they had been speaking to wouldn't run off as soon as he had got his breathe back. Fortunately, Zing flew in was an answer.

"Perhaps this would help?" Zing said, hovering over to them with Sky's bag hanging beneath her. Sky had dropped it just before the ninjas had attack and he had completely forgotten about it until then.

"Good one Zing," Sky smiled, relieving her of the heavy bag and opening it to pull out two addle shacklers and a compactable magical stretcher. As soon as the ninjas were under the sleepy spell of the addle shacklers and the unconscious one was piled onto the stretcher, the two heroes, the pixie and their captives headed back to the palace grounds.

* * *

"Well, that was a total waste of time," Sky grumbled as he and Brandon made their way through the gardens in search of Flora and Bloom. They had dumped the two ninjas they had captured into the custody of the royal guards from questioning and then slipped off before anyone could suggest assigning someone to watch them. It was an easy task since Leopold and Alistair were still off with Sky's parents, but finding the girls was proving to be more difficult than expected given the massive size of the gardens.

"It wasn't a total waste of time," Brandon reminded his best friend. "Least we know Yousha Nowa doesn't have Diaspro."

"It still doesn't make us any closer to finding her," Sky growled, but his foul mood lifted when he spotted a glimpse of familiar red hair. "Bloom! Flora!"

"There you guys are," Bloom smiled, turning around and waiting for the boys to join them.

"Any word on Diaspro?" Flora asked. She was holding in her hands a large, glass sphere, and inside the sphere was a flower that Sky had noticed around his home several times, but every time he saw it, it was always growing in a different location.

"Yes and no," Brandon answered. "We ran into a bunch of Yousha Nowa ninjas and apparently they don't have Diaspro. Some group called the Right Wronger's took her before they had a chance to."

"Wrong Righter's," Sky corrected.

"Whatever."

"And where are they?" Bloom asked.

"We have no idea," Sky informed her gravely.

"Well, we might be able to help," Flora said sweetly, heading off into the forest. "C'mon. Bloom and I can use this flower and Diaspro's pin to try and locate her, but the spell will work best if we're away from any distractions."

"Okay," Sky nodded, following after Flora. He was all out of ideas, so he was grateful for the fact that someone had a back up plan.

"So who are these Wrong Righter's?" Bloom asked as they tried to put as much distance between them and the palace as possible.

"They're some kind of social justice group," Brandon answered her.

"Social justice ninja fighters?" Bloom repeated.

"Social justice. Saving the environment. Apparently they're into all sorts of causes," Brandon said. He would have gone into more detail on the topic but any chance of that happening vanished when Flora suddenly gasped. Instantly on the alert, Brandon's brown eyes widened as a red feather shot passed Flora's head with such force that it was actually able embedded itself in a rock. Putting the contained flower down, Flora ran over to observe the object that had come close enough to her face that it had actually brushed through her hair.

"Hey, it's a feather!" Bloom noted.

"It's more like an arrow," Brandon corrected. "That thing could do some damage."

"This is a very environmentally friendly weapon," Flora said picking it up and handing it over to Sky so he could get a closer look at it.

"The Wrong Righter's are into the environment," Sky reminded everyone. "It looks like they're sending us some kind of warning."

"Can you do the spell now Flora?" Brandon asked as Flora picked up sphere with flower in it again.

"Here's Diaspro's pin," Sky offered, holding it out in the palm of his hands.

"The full moon is not good for location spells," Flora informed the two boys.

"I forgot about that," Bloom admitted.

"We'll need everyone's help."

"Well, okay but I've never cast a spell before," Brandon warned her.

"We just need you to focus your energy," Bloom told him with an encouraging smile.

"When Bloom and I start casting the spell, try to picture what we want it to accomplish," Flora explained to everyone.

"If we can all focus on finding Diaspro we can balance the strong pull of the moon."

"And that'll lead us to the Right Wronger's?" Brandon asked.

"Wrong Righter's!" Sky corrected again.

"Whatever."

"It'll lead us to Diaspro since we can only focus on one person at a time. The others will have to wait," Flora said. "Okay, what we need is some water and some earth since they are the two elements which relate most to location spells."

"Really?" Brandon asked. He knew a bit about magic since his mother had been a rather talented fairy, but there were still a few things that managed to escape him. And using a pile of dirt and a drop of water to locate something was one of those things.

"Yes, Brandon, trust us. We know what we're doing," Bloom grinned as her and Flora went about getting the spell ready. Before too long, the two fairies had two more glass spheres in their possession; one holding some water and some holding some earth.

"Alrighty then, everyone focus your energy and picture Diaspro in your minds," Flora instructed. "Lockette, do you have the brooch?"

"Right here!" the little pixie held up.

"Good. When the spells starts, it should start pulling you in the direction of Diaspro."

"Ready guys?" Bloom asked, and when she got determined nods off of everyone she said, "Okay, let's do this!"

"This is kinda like dragon wrangling," Brandon said to Sky as the two of them watched the dark trees around them so Bloom and Flora could focus on the spell.

"Dude, concentrate," Sky silenced him, but Brandon was right about the similarities. Focusing his mental energy, Sky sent it outwards exactly like he would if he was trying to take control over a dragon, but instead of focusing it into another beings mind, he focused it down into the three sphere. And all the while, Diaspro's face was pictured in his head. Neither Sky nor Brandon could tell if their efforts were being on any use to the spell, but not long after they started concentrating then the three spheres levitated themselves into the air and started floating off in a direction that – if Flora was correct – would lead them straight to Diaspro. Along with the floating spheres, the brooch in Lockette's hand started to pull forward, dragging the pixie with it.

"Guys, we got it!" Flora announced cheerful, scrambling to her feet so that she could follow the spheres and Lockette.

"Is the spell working?" Sky asked, uncertain about this whole way of tracking.

"It's leading us to Diaspro!" Bloom assured him proudly.

Sky couldn't help but grin. Not only were they finally on the right track of rescuing Diaspro which meant that the chances of him and Bloom having dinner with his parents as planned had gotten more likely, but also his very first spell had been a success. "I'll remember this next time I lose my keys."

His grin faded though when Lockette – an admittedly cowardly pixie – started freaking out for no apparent reason.

"What's the matter Lockette?" Flora asked, her tone of voice rather concerned.

"I sense all paths are dangerous," Lockette told them all in a quivering voice. While she was cowardly, everyone listened to her when she warned them of dangerous paths. She was the Pixie of Portals after all, and she was able to sense things that others couldn't.

"Something's flying around at bug-like speed," Zing told everyone, and the group instantly turned their eyes to the dark undergrowth that surrounded them. Sky had Brandon both got that feeling at the back of their necks that told them they were being watched, but – just like when they were looking for the ninja – they couldn't see any sign of anyone in the area.

"I don't see anything," Brandon admitted.

"I don't either. Let's keep going," Flora suggest, turning back around to continue on the way they had been going. But no sooner had she turned her back then their unseen enemy fired a small, purple arrow at her from behind. The arrow was an addle arrow, which meant they reduced whoever they hit with the same sluggish state of mind that the addle shackles did and if it hit Flora, that would mean that the group would be down one person when it came to a fight. However, Zing – who had changed her appearance so that she was dressed as a cowboy – drove in and took the arrow right in the chest. There was a puff of smoke as the arrow hit her, and the little pixie dropped to the ground. "Zing!" Flora gasped, crouching down by the pixie who had just taken a hit for her. The others quickly rushed over. "Are you okay?"

"I'm all right, little lady," Zing assured her in a heavy cowboy accent. As a pixie, she was full of enough positive energy to protect her from any addle weaponry, but also as the Pixie of Insects, her clothing – although they didn't look it – were made up of a hard, exoskeleton-like material to give her extra protection.

"Wow, that sure was a close one," Brandon pointed out to everyone.

"Alright, we should all try to stick together," Sky suggest, positive that whoever was watching them was not going to give up after one failed attempt.

Now sooner than he had said that, then several attacks came at them from all sides. From above, dropped two large nets. From the sides, arrows and pointed bamboo sticks shot at them, embedding themselves into the ground right at their feet. And from below, the ground underneath Brandon suddenly fell away as a trap door opened to reveal a massive pit. Happening too fast for Brandon to jump clear off, the squire helpless fell into the pit and would had ended up skewered on a bunch of sharp spikes that were waiting for him at the bottom if he hadn't by chance reached out and grabbed a root that was penetrating out of the wall.

"Whoa!" Brandon gasped. Looking down, he saw the spikes that he would have impaled himself on if it hadn't been for exceptional good luck. "That was a little too close."

"Now Flora!" Bloom should, raising her hands above her head. "Griselda Bubble!"

Suddenly, the four teenagers and their three pixies were surrounded by a cone of fiery orange light. The nets that had dropped out of the sky landed on Bloom's shield, but the intense heat of the Last Princess of Sparx magic caused them catch fire and disintegrate into nothing.

"Ivy Fortress!" Flora cast, and out of the ground grew several thick vines which reinforced Bloom's shield and block several pointed bamboo sticks. While the fairies forced on shielding them from this unknown enemy, Sky quickly rushed to his best friend's aid.

"Hold on!" Sky called out, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. Kneeling down beside the edge of the pit, Sky held out hand. "Here!"

Trying to ignore the burning pain that was gathering in the shoulder of his right arm that was holding onto the root, Brandon stretched his left arm out as far as he could to try and reach his prince. Their fingertips brushed light against one another, and for a second there, Brandon had a sickening feeling that he was just out of reach. But then Sky leaned out further over the pit and grasped Brandon by the wrist. Pulling with all his strength, Sky managed to drag his best friend out of danger.

"Thanks, man," Brandon panted, thankful to be back on solid ground.

"Anytime," Sky grinned back, relieved that his friend was safe.

"Sky totally saved Brandon!" Chatta cheered loudly. "He deserves a cheer! Go Sky! You're our hero!"

"Chatta! Quiet!" Bloom scolded, silencing the pixie. They weren't out of danger yet.

"I think it's them," Lockette whimpered, looking towards one of the trees. The others followed her gaze and saw, perched upon a tree branch, were four people and dressed in similar uniforms. There were three young adult who looked like they had only just graduated the year before and one little kid who looked like he was still supposed to be in middle school. Of the three young adults, there were two males who looked like they were twins and one female. They all wore the same blue leotard with patches of yellow on their legs and on their arms. On their chest they bore the emblem of the Wrong Righter's, which was a yellow triangle with a thick arrow of the same colour pointing down from the bottom. Their hands were covered in red gloves and capes of the same colour covered their backs. All the males wore blue/grey helmet with clear face shields while the girl wore a cap that resembled a lady bug. They could have all been related for all the teens could tell since the Wrong Righter's all had dark, straight hair which all of them except the boy wore long.

All in all, Brandon thought they all looked pretty ridiculous, and apparently he wasn't the only one.

"That's them?" Bloom asked, jerking her thumb at them.

One of the twins – and the one the teenagers instantly assumed was their leader – started laughing for no real reason, and it was enough to make Brandon shake with rage. "I don't know who you clowns think you are or what you think you're doing with – "

"I'll tell you who we are; where ever there is injustice and inequality, we are there! Wherever people are suffering, we are there!" the Wrong Righter's leader told them jumping into air dramatically.

His twin then leapt into the air two, twirling around a few times before releasing several red feathers just like the one that had been thrown at Flora a few minutes ago at Bloom's feet. The young man then landed gracefully on the ground and removed a feather from mouth to say, "We fight poverty!"

The boy flew down to ground level using a yellow hang glider thing and then landed on the ground with levi blades. "That's right! We save the oceans!"

"That's right!" the woman agreed, jumping into their air with big, silver helmet in one hand and some lipstick in the other. "We lobby for education!"

Throwing the helmet into air, the woman then reached into her purse and pulls out the rest of the body armour – all of which should have been far too big to fit inside such a small purse – and threw it into the air to join the helmet. The four teenagers watch in disbelief as the armour assembled itself in mid air to form giant robot. It too had the Wrong Righter's logo on its chest and a red cape, and when it landed on the ground it stood taller than anyone else on the team.

"Our mission is to stop environmental depredation and to defend under privileged beings all across the magical dimension!" their leader ranted. "We are here to uphold justice! We are the unstoppable, invincible – "

"Wrong Righter's!" all of them cheered together.

"They're wired!" Chatta grinned, delighted by their enthusiasm.

"They're crazy," Brandon muttered to Sky under his breathe, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Sky nod in agreement.

"Freedom Kick!" the leader of the Wrong Righter's cried, running at Sky and barraging him in several very quick ninja kicks. Sky managed to block most of them, but one or two did get around his hands to hit the princes body. Even Yousha Nowa's best forest ninja wasn't on the same page as this guy.

"Let's go girls!" Bloom shouted as she and Flora transformed.

Jumping on the back of the robot, the woman leapt into the air, hurling several sticks of lipstick at the two fairies. "Righteous Lipstick!"

The lipsticks hit Bloom's shield with full force and the Last Princess of Sparx slide backwards under the sheer force of the attack. "Watch out!" she warned Flora.

"I'll take care of her!" Flora assured her, but she was a bit taken back when the woman hurled several more lipsticks at her and when they missed they embedded themselves in the ground and in the hard bark of the tree behind the flower fairy. "Whoa. Something tells me those lipsticks aren't used from cosmetic reasons."

Meanwhile, Sky was still fighting the Wrong Righter's leader, but the guy was proving to be far to fast for the prince. Sky was focusing all his energy on just avoiding the ninja's legs and from the looks of it the Wrong Righter's energy was as limitless as their enthusiasm for conservation of the environment. Brandon was busy taking on the twin, whose similarities with his brother went further than just looks. He was just as strong and as fast as the leader, and he was currently running rings around Brandon.

"Man! They're fast," Brandon gasped as the twin caught his around the neck with a cord made out of electricity and for the second time that night, Brandon found his airways cut off. He tried to struggle out of his opponents hold, but before he could escape, he lost consciousness and fell in a heap on the ground.

"Brandon!" Sky shouted, trying to get away for the ninja he was fighting to go and check on his friend, but his opponent wasn't going to let him leave.

"Give it up, hero," the Right Wronger said. "We're not letting the princess go until she fully understands the injustice she had caused in her realm."

"Injustice?" Sky repeated. He knew that the Wrong Righter's weren't working for Yousha Nowa, but he was surprised to learn that these guys didn't take Diaspro for finical gain. He would have liked to just be able to talk this out with the ninjas, but he suddenly found himself having to dodge several high kicks again so all chances of a conversation was lost.

"Vine Wrap!" Flora spelled, tying up the robot. But kid had locked her into his missile system and seconds later it hit her. Knock unconscious, the flower fairy collapsed on top of Brandon who was still out cold.

"Dammit!" Sky hissed through clenched teeth. But again he wasn't able to check on his friends because of the ninja he was fighting. Feed up with this game, Sky finally retaliated with an attack of his own and managed to kick the Wrong Righter off of him, but as he stumbled backwards, the Wrong Righter threw a small, blue ball at the prince. When the ball opened, several blue strings lashed out and secured Sky's arms to his side. Grunting in his efforts to free himself, Sky over balanced and fell to the ground, and without the use of his arms, he wasn't able to get back up again.

"Sky!" Bloom cried, before realising that the robot was flying right at her. Gathering her power to full strength, Bloom took aim and fired everything she had at it. "Dragon Blast!"

The blast hit the robot right in the chest and the impact was enough to completely disassemble the robot. But if the other Wrong Righter's were troubled by their comrades defeat, they didn't show it. Almost calmly, the woman pulled out her compact case and after checking herself in the mirror, threw the powder puff right at Bloom. "Mac Out Powers."

The powder puff hit Bloom and surrounded her in a thin cloud of powder. The fairy instantly started coughing before sinking to the ground. Her eyes got heavy and before she knew it, the fairy was in a powdered induced sleep.

"Bloom!" Sky called, straining against his bonds. A shadow fell across him and when he looked up, he saw the twin brother of the Wrong Righter that had tied him up.

"Nighty night," the Wrong Righter grinned sadistically, raising his foot. The last thing Sky could remember was the ninja bring his foot down on his head, and then everything went black.

* * *

"Sky? Sky, wake up."

"Huh?" Sky grunted, slowly waking up as someone gently shook him. Blinking, he looked up at the person who had been calling him. "Flora?"

"Sky, thank goodness you're awake," Flora smiled, a look of pure relief washing over her face.

"Where are we?" Sky asked, sitting up slowly.

"I don't know," Flora admitted. By the looks of it, they were in a single celled dungeon made of stone with only one window which was barred. Getting to his feet, Sky made his way to the window and looked out at the forest. In the distance, he could see the lights of the palace, and even further back was the capital city.

"I know where we are. This is the jail they set up when Eraklyon was originally colonized. I'm sure we're breaking some heritage rule by being here," Sky said, though considering their captors, most likely not. "Where's Bloom?"

"I'm here," a soft voice said weakly, and Sky turned to see Bloom leaning against the wall as she sat on the ground. She still looked pretty groggy, but she was slowly coming around.

Making his way over to her, Sky knelt down in front of her and took her hands in his. "Bloom, I'm so sorry about this. I wanted this to be the prefect night, but it's just turned into a big old mess."

"It's not your fault," Bloom reminded him with a smile. "And besides, least we can never say that Eraklyon is boring."

Sky couldn't help but laugh, but his smile faded when he saw that Brandon was still lying unconscious on the floor. Moving over to him, Sky gently shook his best friends shoulder, trying to wake him up. "Brandon? Brandon, can you hear me? Brandon?"

"Not now, Mom. I don't wonna get up," Brandon muttered sleepily.

"Brandon."

"But Mom," Brandon whined, opening his eyes slowly. He blinked a few times and looked around the dungeon groggily. "Somehow I get the feeling that this isn't where your parents are meeting us for dinner."

"No," Sky grinned. As Bloom and Brandon recovered, Sky told them about where they were and about how he thought that the Wrong Righter's hadn't kidnapped Diaspro for money.

"Then what did the Right Wronger's kidnap her for?" Brandon asked.

"Wrong Righter's," Sky corrected.

"Whatever."

"I dunno," Sky shrugged. "They said something about injustice but I have no idea what that meant."

"Well, I did hear reports that Diaspro was being a bit of a fashion tyrant and a major sob back on Quartz. Maybe it has something to do with that."

"Maybe. But how do we convince the Wrong Righter's to release Diaspro?" Sky asked and the cell fell silent.

Finally, Bloom asked, "Do you think they know that Yousha Nowa is claiming he took her and that he's demanding a ransom?"

"I doubt it," Sky said, catching on to what she was saying. "But I'm sure that they wouldn't approve of it."

"If they knew that Yousha Nowa was using them they'd let Diaspro go," Brandon concluded.

"You're right Brandon," Flora agreed. "We have to tell them."

"Yeah, but they would never believe us," Bloom pointed out, but Brandon was already one step ahead of her.

"We could show the Wrong Righter's the ransom note."

"Of course," Flora grinned. "Let's get out of here and go get the note!"

"That's a good plan," Bloom agreed.

Sky agreed as well, but there was just one flaw to their plan. "How do we get out?"

"Can we help?" a small voice asked. Looking out the window, the four teens saw Lockette smiling at them and accompanying her was Chatta and Zing.

"Hi Lockette!" Bloom greeted fondly. "You can help me do the escape spell Palladium taught us!"

"While they do that, Zing, you can go get the ransom note," Brandon told the bug-like pixie.

"I'm on it!" Zing saluted, flying off back towards the palace. With the combination of Bloom's Dragon Fire and Lockette's portal powers, they were able to get the lock to the dungeon open and in no time at all they were out under the nights sky in a very similar situation.

"So now what?" Brandon asked. "I mean, we have no idea where Diaspro is, no idea where our environmentally conscious ninjas have run off to and we have no idea how we're gonna find them. And don't even get me started on how late we are for dinner!"

Flora timidly raised her hand. "I think I may have an idea."

"You do?" Sky asked hopefully.

"Yeah, the poppy portalus flower has the same magical components as a transport pad," Flora explained, holding up the flower that was still encased in its sphere. "If we can locate Diaspro using the location spell we did last time, the poppy portalus through exchange of molecules can then bring Diaspro right here."

"Serious?"

"Yeah."

"Then let's do it."

The girls quickly set up the spell in the same way that they had before, only this time they had the spheres water, the earth and now one with Diaspro's brooch arranged in a triangle and hovering above them was the poppy portalus.

"Let me get this straight," Sky said once everything was set up. "All you have to do cast a spell and that little flower will transport Diaspro?"

"Yup," Flora nodded.

"Looks like it located her," Lockette said as the three spheres down the bottom suddenly seemed to have a picture of Diaspro in it.

"Now we have to do the teleporting spell," Bloom told everyone.

"What were you saying about how the flower teleports?" Brandon asked, making sure he understood everything before they started anything. He had heard tales of teleportation and translocation spells going totally wrong, resulting in people being what is referred to in the teleporting industry as 'spliced' which basically meant that a person would leave half of themselves behind when they teleported. It was a painful and awkward situation for a person to be in – and on the odd occasion, irreversible – and it was not something that Brandon wanted to witness. "That it needs to exchange one molecule for another or something?"

"Yeah, that's exactly right," Flora said, getting up off the ground.

"Well, what does that mean?" Sky asked.

"The way the spell works is that one of us will have to switch places with Diaspro in order for the flower to teleport her back here," Flora explain, plucking the poppy portalus out of the air and placing it in the centre of a tripod that they had set up beneath the triangle before stepping back.

"Right," Bloom agreed.

"If someone has to go I should be the one to do it," Sky volunteered.

"I'll go," Bloom disagreed.

"No, I'll go."

"I think Bloom should be the one to go because she can use her powers to get back to us," Flora suggested, trying to head off a round about argument.

Bloom nodded. "That settles it then."

"I'll go with you," Lockette offered, but then her nerve started to give out so she quickly added, "If you really want me to."

Bloom smiled. "You should stay here and help Flora."

"Why are you doing all this?" Sky had to ask. He knew Bloom did not like Diaspro in the slightest – hell, the first time they met it had quickly escalated into them throwing attacks at each other and Bloom knocking Diaspro clear out of the sky – so it didn't make sense to why she would want to risk splicing and encaging herself with the enemy for the sake of Diaspro.

"I don't care much for Diaspro," Bloom admitted. "But I care about you and I said I'd help you."

Sky wanted to say more, but Flora cut in before he had a chance to even open his mouth. "Okay you guys, let's get this spell started. Just remember to focus like last time. Ready Bloom?"

"Ready," Bloom nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay. Focus everyone."

Concentrating all his mental energy on picturing Diaspro in his head, Sky kept his eyes glued on Bloom. He still didn't like the fact that she was the one going to replace Diaspro, but Flora did have a good point about Bloom having magic. But he still didn't like it. Suddenly – without any warning – the poppy portalus flashed white and Bloom vanished. In her place, the very beautiful and regal Princess Diaspro sat on the dirty ground looking very baffled. Looking about her, Diaspro glanced at Brandon and Flora, but when her brown eyes fell on sky, they widened and filled with tears.

"Sky!" she wailed, scrambling to her feet and running over to him. Throwing her arms around his neck, Diaspro pressed herself hard up against him and sobbed into his chest. "Oh Sky! They were horrible! They had me in this damp old cave that was dreadful on my hair and there was this big, slobbering dog! Oh, it was horrible! Horrible!"

"Frizzy hair and dog drool? Give that girl a metal," Brandon muttered to Flora who tried horribly not to smile.

"Diaspro," Sky said, pulling her off him. "Bloom won't be – "

"Bloom? That Earth girl's here?"

"That Earth girl is the one that volunteered to trade places with you in order to get you to safety," Brandon told her with undisguised distasted. Since she wasn't used to being spoken to like that, Diaspro looked a little taken back but at the same time, she was equally baffled by the fact that Bloom would risk such a thing for her.

"The Wrong Righter's will be here shortly," Sky reminded everyone. "Flora, you and the pixies take Diaspro out of harms way. The Princess has been through enough today."

As soon as Flora and Diaspro were gone, Brandon and Sky pulled out their phantom blades and waited.

"She'll be fine, right?" Sky asked, rocking back and forward on his feet nervously.

"Yeah."

Silence fell over the two of them, but wasn't long until Sky broke it again. "What's taking her so long?"

"Dude, she's fine. I'm sure she'll give us some kind of signal," Brandon told him. As soon as the words left his lips, a massive fire tornado appeared off in the distance, signalling that Bloom was making a successful and flashy escape. "It looks like this is it. Bloom is coming back."

"And she's got company," Sky noted as Bloom joined them and hot on her heels were the Wrong Righter's.

"So did Zing get the ransom note?" Bloom asked.

"Zing's is not back yet," Brandon informed her anxiously. This whole plan depended on Zing getting that note and convincing the Wrong Righter's that they had been used. Without it, they were no doubt facing another ass kicking like what happened last time.

"We have to distract these guys until she gets here," Sky told everyone.

"Villainous rogues!" one of the twins cursed them and from the way he talked the teens were able to identify him as the leader of the Wrong Righter's. "You dare enter our quarters and thwart our plans for education?"

"Didn't you learn anything from last time," the other twin spat.

"Look guys. We're not looking for a fight," Sky tried to reason with them.

"Too bad. You found one."

Before the teens knew it, the Wrong Righter's had them completely surrounded, putting Sky, Brandon and Bloom at a disadvantage. "Zing better hurry," Brandon muttered, eyeing off each Wrong Righter.

"Many have tried to stop the Wrong Righter's but all of them have failed," the leader informed them. "Let's attack!"

"Wait!" Zing little voice called out, freezing the Wrong Righter's in their tracks.

"Huh?"

A wide smile crossed Brandon's face when he saw the little, bug-like pixie flying towards them. "Just in time."

"Yup," Bloom agreed.

"Here!" Zing said, throwing the note at Bloom, but the leader quickly jumped in a caught it.

"And what do we have here?" the Wrong Righter demanded to know.

"A ransom note for Diaspro," Bloom explained.

"Not only that, it's been signed by Yousha Nowa," Sky added.

"He made you look like kidnappers!"

"Huh?" the leader gasped, before letting out a feral sounding growl. "This Yousha Nowa dares to shame the honoured name of the Wrong Righter's. This insult shalt not be ignored as long as this body draws breathe. We shall not excuse the injuries that he had done to me for the hate I bare him can afford no better term than this; he is a villain!" (4)

"Wow, he's like Shakespeare," Bloom commented.

"A what spear?" Brandon asked, unsure as how a person could be related to a weapon.

"Comrades, please offer the most sceneries apologizes from a misguided fool," the leaded said, bowing low. "We wished only to educate the tyrannous princess and inform her of her peoples suffering. We did not think that something this horrible would transpire from our actions. You have my deepest apologizes and my solemn vow to be you faithful and unconditional servant, Stephen."

"Oh, there's really no need for . . ." Sky stated, but he trailed off when what the Wrong Righter had said finally hit him. "You're name is Stephen?"

"That it is."

"Oh. I just figured with the way you talked that it would be something more . . ." Sky trailed off again. "You know what, never mind."

"Allow me to introduce my comrades," Stephen said, gesturing to the small boy. "This is Robert, our technical expert. A finer hand at infiltrating a computer system you shall not find."

"Hey," Robert waved, completely unfazed by Stephen's odd way of speaking.

"May I now introduce a maiden whose shames us all in our beauty as daylight doth a lamp, and her eternal beauty is only complemented by her endless knowledge. She is too wise and too fair for this mortal world, but we are blessed to have not only her company, but her beloved friendship as well," Stephen gushed, looking adoringly at the woman of the group. "May I introduce the elegant and stunning Bindi."

"How come you never talk to me like that?" Bloom asked Sky.

Sky looked at her in shock. "I don't think even Helia could talk to you like that."

"And of course, my beloved kinsman," Stephen said, looking lovingly at his twin. "We are one face, one voice, one habit and two persons. A natural perspective that is and is not. An apple cleft in two is – "

"Oh, shut up!" his twin cut him off, clearly stating that they were not one habit. "I'm Irwin and the big robot's called Ventidius (5). Now can we please go and get this Yousha Nowa guy."

"Yes. Onwards Wrong Righter's and new comrades!" Stephen cried, marching forward towards the tent that Flora had set up to house Diaspro while the fight was on. Stephen easily lifted the tent clear off the ground, revealing a terrified looking bunch of fairies and pixies.

"Oh no!" Flora gasped.

"It's okay," Sky quickly reassured her.

"These guys are on our side now," Brandon said.

"Come on. Let's go get Yousha Nowa!" the leader shouted.

"Yeah!" the rest of his team cheered.

"We shall vanquish Yousha Nowa and rid your kingdom of this vile parasite once and for all!" Stephen promised before sinking to the ground in front of Diaspro. "M'lady, please accept my deepest apology. I shall strive each day to rid myself of the shame of the wrong I did unto thee. I swear, on the blood of – "

"Look, I forgive you," Diaspro cut him off. "Just go, or whatever."

"To Yousha Nowa!" Stephen cried, rising to his feet. "Wrong Righter's, away!"

And with that, the Wrong Righter's bounded off into the night, ready to put an end to Yousha Nowa reign of terror.

"You know, despite being a little weird, those Right Wronger's were alright," Brandon said.

"_Wrong Righter's!"_ everyone expect Diaspro corrected him.

"Whatever. Can we have dinner now?"

* * *

The following morning, the four high school students were lounging in Sky's private quarters, simply enjoying a peaceful morning after such a hectic night. Once they had convinced the Wrong Righter's that Yousha Nowa was the real villain, they had returned to the palace with a very relieved Princess Diaspro who apparently had adopted a new look on life. After her brief stint in captivity, Diaspro was making decrements of freedom for all those she had wrongly imprisoned back on Quartz for simple fashion violations. The Princess was quickly rushed onto a private ship so she could return back to her home and put her parents and her people minds a peace. Sky hoped that Diaspro's new views would last, but there was no real guarantee of that.

But that didn't matter at the moment. The most important thing in Sky's mind was that he had finally able to sit down with his parents, his girlfriend and his friends to have the dinner like they had originally planned.

The group were laughing as Brandon went about retelling them one of the times when he was younger and he had gotten so nervous about meeting Sky's father that he had accidentally enclosed himself in Leopold's closet when he thought it was a bathroom. Any chances of the young squire correcting his mistake before the king arrived was ruined due to the fact that no sooner had Brandon closed the closet door and realised his mistake than the king entered the room.

"And what did he do?" Bloom asked, covering her mouth in pure embarrassment for young Brandon.

"When he found out that I was in Leo's closet he told me to come out," Brandon told her, and in his voice she could tell that even after all this time it was still something Brandon cringed at. "Of course, I had to do it! So out I come – absolutely ready to die from embarrassment – and he asks me . . . Sky, do the voice."

"He said, 'What were you doing in closet, boy?'" Sky said, mimicking his father very well.

"Oh no," Flora whined, really feeling for Brandon.

"And I said, 'I had to pee'," Brandon told them and the room instantly filled with howls of laughter. "Oh shut up! I was like eight or something!"

"Oh my god," Bloom gasped, clutching her sides.

"That was that the second time you met my father, wasn't it?" Sky asked. He knew Brandon hated bring up the embarrassing stories, but there was no denying that these stories were funny and he also knew how much Brandon liked to make people laugh.

"That was the third time," Brandon corrected. "The first time was when I slipped over in the throne room due to those new shoes my mom got me. The second time was when he saw me dancing around in a bathrobe and when I realised he was there I threw my drink up in the air." (6)

"I still don't understand how you didn't see that 'wet paint' sign they had on the bench."

"Wet paint was the least of my troubles that day."

Another round of laugher filled the room and just as it was dying down when there was a knock at their door and at Sky command, Leopold entered, "Your highness, the King and Queen requests the presence of Princess Bloom and yourself in the throne room."

"What do you think they want?" Bloom asked, looking nervously at Sky.

"I'm not sure," Sky admitted. "But I guess we better go and find out."

A few minutes later, Leopold's strong voice announced them to the King and Queen, and the two teens found themselves once again standing before the royal thrones.

"Thank you both for coming so quickly," Sky's father greeted with a warm smile. "We just thought we should inform you that the Wrong Righter's have successfully contained Yousha Nowa and the rest of the forest ninjas. Yousha Nowa is currently in the custody of the Preventer Force."

"That's awesome news," Sky grinned. The Preventer Force was a military Special Ops. Unit which patrolled the universe preventing acts of terrorism and needless war mongering. The head of the force was a powerful celestial who had held the position of Commander in Chief for over six hundred years. There was no way the Preventer Force was ever going to let Yousha Nowa escape their custody.

"Yes, but all credit is to go to you and your friends, son. Without them, we may never have had the Wrong Righter's join our side."

"Thank you, but I'm afraid all real credit should go to Bloom," Sky told his parents modestly. "It was her who willing placed herself in danger so that we could get Diaspro to safety."

For the first time that entire weekend, Sky's father smiled warmly at Bloom. "Yes, we cannot forget that. Such bravery and selflessness is rare in this day and age and it should not go unrecognized. What say you two join us on our private yacht next weekend? I haven't been sailing with Sky in such a long time."

"We'll have to see about that one, dad."

"You're very brave Bloom," the king told the fairy honestly. "We're extremely impressed."

"Thank you, your majesty," Bloom grinned back, relieved to have finally made a good impression on Sky's parents. Sky saw her start to relax a bit, making him feel less anxious that he had been over the last few days. "That really means a lot to me."

"You'll make a great queen some day, dear," Sky's mother said, and her son knew that that was about the closest thing to an acceptance that she was ever going to give.

"Now, what should we do about these Wrong Righter's?" the King asked. While he was grateful for them removing a dangerous crime lord out of him realm, the king did find their enthusiasm to be a bit exhausting after a while. "I have to say, I hope they're not planning to stick on Eraklyon."

"I could be wrong but I don't think you have to worry about that, your majesty," Bloom assured him.

* * *

After Bloom and Sky had left to go meet Sky's parents in the throne room, Brandon and Flora had received word that the Wrong Righter's were out of the front of the palace, preparing to leave. After a moment hesitation, the two teens decided to head out side to see them off. After all, if you ignored their insane enthusiasm, the Wrong Righter's were a pretty nice group of people. There was just one thing that trouble Brandon.

"I still don't get it," Brandon said as they watched the activists squabble amongst themselves about what their next mission was going to be. "How do they tell those twins apart? They're completely identical. I mean, I know that's expected since they're twins, but I can't pick out one feature that identifies one from the other until they open their mouths." (7)

"I was talking to Bindi, and apparently Stephen is the taller one and Irwin is the one with the temper," Flora explained.

"How can you tell which one of them has the temper at the moment?" Brandon asked as the group continued to snap at one another.

"Alright, one more time. Let's see if we can come to a group decision," Stephen begged his team in a voice that stated his was starting to lose his patience.

"I want to save the oceans!" Bindi instantly said.

"Yeah, well, what about children's rights?" Robert asked.

"What about robot's rights?" Ventidius raised.

Irwin didn't seem too thrilled about any of the suggestions. "Don't you think we should go stop the drilling in the pristine realm?"

"Maybe we should go protect the water supply in Tides?" Stephen pondered.

"Er?" Flora and Brandon grunted in unison. For a group of activists rallying for universal harmony and conservation, they weren't very good at agreeing with one another.

"Children's rights are more important than the environment!" Robert protested, earning several horrified looks from the rest of his team.

"They're of equal importance!" Bindi shouted back.

"What about the winged liger?" Stephen suggested out of nowhere. None of the others verbally agreed to Stephen's idea, but none of them disagreed which was good enough for him.

Completely unaware of the dilemma that face the Wrong Righter's, Bloom and Sky made their way over to them while reflecting on what had just happened in the throne room. "I think that went pretty well, right?" Bloom asked.

"Sure, my parents are never that nice," Sky answered truthfully.

"Hey," Stephen greeted the couple when they joined the group. Apparently, his odd way of speaking only occurred whenever he got really enthusiastic about something.

"So tell us, what are the Wrong Righter's up to next?" Bloom asked them. Brandon flinched, expecting all five Wrong Righter's to start yelling at once, but it never came. Instead, they were all willing to let Stephen answer for them.

"We're going to save the winged liger!" Stephen cried, suddenly turning and running off towards the gate with a few massive jumps thrown in for good measure. "Everyone's who's with me, come on!"

"Alright," Irwin grinned, following after his twin.

"Let's go!" Robert cheered. A couple large jumps and a few seconds later, the Wrong Righter's were out of sight, leaving four rather sell shocked teens in their wake.

"Wow," Bloom gasped, a little taken back by their never ending enthusiasm.

Sky totally agreed with her, but right now he wanted to fill Brandon and Flora in on what had just happened inside the throne room. "My parents said Bloom was the greatest and they said they'd take us sailing next week."

"Um, I don't mean to jump the gun but do you think I could be queen of both Eraklyon and Sparx at the same time?" Bloom asked cheerfully.

"I think you should take Sky to meet your parents," Brandon suggested, a rather cheeky expression on his face.

"I don't know. I'm nervous about Earth manners. I'm scared I'd make a fool of myself," Sky repeated what Bloom had said on the flight to Eraklyon, putting his arm fondly around Bloom's shoulders.

"Just be yourself and you'll be great," Bloom told him. "And at least I can guarantee you that you won't have to do anything crazy like go running out to rescue a princess from ninjas while on Earth."

"Hey, I didn't plan that," Sky reminded her. "Although you are right about those Right Wronger's being crazy."

"Wrong Righter's," Brandon corrected.

"Whatever."

* * *

A few hours later, the group decided that they should probably get back to Magix since each of them did have a small amount of homework waiting for them there. Also – after such a chaotic night – each of them were hoping for a bit of quiet time before classes started on the Monday.

"Please try and have a safe flight, your highness," Leopold begged as he and Alistair stood in the front courtyard to see them off. Sky and Brandon's levi bikes were standing by, ready for it owners to drive them to the Eraklyon space port where their ship was being held.

"Have we ever given you any reason to believe we wouldn't?" Sky asked, trying to look as innocent as possible, which in turn made him look all the more suspicious.

"I do recall the time when you were eleven and one of the royal space ships somehow managed to smash through the garage doors."

"Yes well, that was Brandon's fault."

"Hey!" Brandon objected loudly. "Don't you dare try and blame that on me! It was _your_ idea to show me the inside of the ship – "

"Yeah, but I didn't think you're actually try and – "

"_Shh_," Brandon suddenly cut the prince off.

"Don't you _shh_ me. It was you're idea to – "

"No, _shh_," Brandon said again. It was there that Sky suddenly became aware of how alert Brandon was, looking as if he was trying to listen for something. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Bloom asked nervously, as fresh memories of being attacked by ninja's entered her mind. "I don't hear anything."

The only thing Sky could ear was his own heartbeat pounding in his ears, but his anxiety quickly changed to confusion as a delighted, childlike expression crossed Brandon's face.

"It can't be?" Brandon grinned widely and for no logical reason – or at least as far as Sky could see – he began running down the driveway. However, things became much clearer with he started to call out, "Lady! Lady! C'mere girl!"

From around a bend in the driveway, galloping at fast but seemingly tireless pace with her tongue lolled out of one side of her mouth, came Lady; the stray dog that Sky had picked up off the streets the year before. She still had the same cream coat and loving brown eyes – though she did look a little fatter but that came as no real shock if you knew how much Brandon's mom loved to mother people to within an inch of their life – and Sky was surprised when he realised how much he had actually missed her over the past year. She had offered no magical support like the pixies did to the Winx Club, but Lady had been a well loved member of Sky's crew, especially since she rarely back chatted. The little dog skidded to a stop in front of Brandon and hopped playfully out of his reach before letting him tackle her to the ground. The human and dog rolled on the ground, rubbing and rough housing one another. Lady managed to playfully bite Brandon's hands a few times, but there was no intent to hurt him, unless of course she planned to kill him by drowning him in dog slobber. But Brandon couldn't really care less.

"Who's my good girl? Who's my girl?" Brandon asked, gently taking hold of her ears and shaking her head from side to side. The dog smiled widely at him and made loving grunting noses as she lapped up the attention of one her beloved masters. Brandon continued wrestling the dog, but he paused when he heard a very familiar and sarcastic voice speak.

"It's nice to see they're teaching you how to act mature at that school of yours."

"_Will!"_ Brandon cried gleefully, scrambling to his feet and tackling his little brother into a tight bear. Not expecting his older brother to leap at him like that, Will was unprepared for the attack and as a result the two of the went crashing to the ground to have a very excited Lady run over to them and start licking both their faces.

"Argh! Lady! Get off!" Will shouted, pushing both sibling and dog off of him. "You know I'm supposed to meet a girl after this!"

"Ooh. Willy's got a girlfriend," Brandon teased, grinning widely at his brother.

"Don't call me that, Brandon Thomas," Will ordered, calling his older sibling by his first and middle name like their mother did whenever either of them was in trouble.

"Shut up, William Jared."

It was ironic that only a few minutes before Brandon had been complaining about how difficult it was to tell Stephen and Irwin apart because now, with the two of them still lying in a pile on the ground glaring at each other, it was quite hard to guess which brother was which. Will looked just like his brother Brandon, but on a few years delay. They both had the same strong jaw line and both had brunette hair, though Will's fringe wasn't quite as long as Brandon's. In fact, the only real difference apart from age was the fact that Will had his mothers green eyes while Brandon had their fathers brown.

"Hey Will," Sky greeted as soon as Will got to his feet and brushed the dirt off his clothes.

"Hi Sky," Will smiled. It never ceased to amaze Sky just how comfortable Brandon's family were with his rank. While almost every other person Sky met seemed to fall over themselves when they found out he was a prince, Brandon's family had always just seen him as a real person, not just a title. Sky loved Brandon's house and everyone in it because of that, and it was one of the reasons why he had asked Brandon to switch identities when they first started at Red Fountain. "When are you going to get some brains and ditch that hopeless excuse for a squire you have?"

"Hey!" Brandon objected from his place on the ground.

"I think I'll hang onto him a little longer," Sky told Will with a fond smile. "But how have you been? How's your final year of middle school?"

"It's alright," Brandon shrugged. "That Mrs. Gregory lady is a real control freak but. She's not even our year adviser but she's all up in our faces like it's her business."

"Argh! I hate that woman," Brandon growled. Sky had gone to a more exclusive middle school than Brandon had, but he had heard enough about this Mrs. Gregory to know just how much Brandon hated her and exactly why. "Just hearing her name makes me so mad I want to kill small children." (8)

"Good thing Roberts gone," Chatta piped up.

"Are you allowed to talk like that?" Flora asked. "You know, as like a future hero?"

"If you knew Gregory you'd understand," Brandon assured her. "She's a tyrant, right Will?"

But Will was no longer listening to his brother. He had suddenly become aware that they were in the presence of two very attractive young ladies, and a charming smile that Sky knew all too well crossed his face. This guy was definitely Brandon's brother. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"Dude, they're too old for you," Brandon quickly informed him, getting to his feet.

"So? Age never stopped you."

"You still aren't pissed about that Stacey chick, are you?"

"You did that on purpose."

"I didn't mean for her to get a crush on me."

"Yes you did. She was three grades below you and you knew I liked her," Will snarled, still very upset about the whole thing.

"Bro, you were ten. What did you think you were going to do with her? Share you're juice box?"

"You shut up!"

"No! You shut up!"

"Both of you shut up," Sky ordered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He did love Brandon and Will like brothers, but that also meant he sometimes hated them like brothers too. "So, Will, which school are you looking at for next year? St Dominic's?"

"Yeah, but also – since your family funded Brandon's tuition to Red Fountain over the last three years – my parents have been able to save up enough to possibly send me to Red Fountain next year."

"My baby brother at Red Fountain? That's awesome!" Brandon cried, launching himself at his brother and encasing him in a strangling bear hug. As an only child, Sky was always shocked at quickly Brandon and Will could go from being at each others throats to being the very best of friends. "Sky! You hear that? Willy and me at Red Fountain together!"

"I doubt the teachers are ready for that," Sky noted.

"It's just a thought," Will pointed out, but Brandon was already planning his senior and Will's freshmen year together. Will ignored him, and instead turned to address Sky. "I don't know how you put up with him. I'm stuck with him because he's family, but you're here by choice."

"It's a mad world," Sky agreed.

After ten more minutes of Brandon ranting to himself and once Lady had lapped up enough love from everyone for the day, it was time to leave. Loaded up with some homemade cookies that Brandon's mother had baked for them, the four teenagers got ready to leave.

"Well, I guess I'll see you when I see you," Sky said to his parents. That was the bad thing about attending a private school in another realm; there was no guaranteeing when he would see his parents next, especially when you considered their own busy schedules.

"Farewell, son," his mother said. "Have a safe flight."

"We'll miss you," the king told his son before smiling over at Bloom who was leaning beside Sky's levi bike, allowing her boyfriend to say goodbye to his parents in private. "That girl's one of a kind so you hang onto her."

Sky smiled warmly at his father. "Oh, I will dad. I will."

* * *

_(1) When I was little there was an English cartoon called the Animals of Fatheringwood. I blanked on a name for a forest and then out of my childhood memories came this little number _

_(2) I couldn't help but picture Leo from the West Wing when creating this character_

_(3) The actual line from the show is simply "We won't leave till you find you daughter" but I figured I needed to make it appear like he was going to continue on to saw daughter-in-law since I don't condone incest even if it was a common practice in medieval royalty _

_(4) I can't remember why exactly, but I decided to make the leader of the Wrong Righter's have an elegant, long winded almost Shakespearian way of talking. I think I just wanted them to seem that little bit more crazy and enthusiastic _

_(5) The Wrong Righter's are named after the most famous lobbyist for environmental conservation; the Steve Irwin and family. The two twins are obviously named after the crocodile hunter himself while Bindi and Robert are the names of his kids who took on his role as wildlife warriors after he died._ _Ventidius however has nothing to do with the Irwin family and is in fact a Shakespearian reference to a solider in Antony and Cleopatra who was given some incredible lines about how the elite oppressed the working class and that a smart man doesn't try to outshine his superiors. Also I just happened to like the name off._

_(6) Brandon's embarrassing moments as a child were inspired (some might even say stolen) from some of my favourite moments in the West Wing. That closet/bathroom scene with Ainsely Hays and the President is one of my most favourite scenes in the entire series _

_(7) After writing this I realised that there is a difference between the two twins; one has a fringe and the other doesn't, but that comment by Brandon that you can't tell them apart relates to a moment later in the chapter so I decided not to fix it _

_(8) Mrs Gregory was a teacher during my final years of high school and I couldn't stand her. That killing small children comment was actually a quote spoken by my goody-two-shoes, Christian friend_

_Whoa. Long enough for ya? Oh, and as an extra bit of trivia; a liger is the offspring when a lion mates with a tiger, just in case you didn't know. _

_TBC. _


	15. Magic In My Heart

_Okay, I know this chapter's a little late, but that's only because I went away on holidays and was too busy swimming and lounging in the sun to edit. Yes, you people in the northern hemisphere, while you guys are freezing I'm currently enjoying summer. Can you just see my smugness and sunny tan radiating off the page? I love Christmas in the summer time. The presents. The sun. The beach. I love it!_

_Now that I'm done gloating, let's get into it shall we? I'm bring back one of my old favourites; the Musa/Riven/Darcy triangle. Another thing I can't get enough of. Whoo!_

_

* * *

_**Chapter Fifteen – Magic in My Heart**

Darcy sat moodily on one of the many boulders Shadow Haunt had on offer, staring at the two shadow monsters before her with a bored expression on her wickedly beautiful face. With her right hand supporting her head, Darcy offhandedly waved her left in the direction of the two monsters, unleashing the hypnotic energy that she had conjured up inside of her and effectively enslaved the shadow monster to her will. Once she was certain that they were under her control, the Dark Witch uttered one word in a deadpan tone of voice.

"Fight."

With a screaming roar, the two shadow monsters broke out of their trance like state and immediately started ripping into each other with their razor sharp claws and teeth. Large chucks of flesh were torn off the monsters in the deadly exchange and the ground beneath their feet was soon drenched in black coloured blood. And still the ugly fight continued.

Darcy watched the bloody battle morbidly for several seconds before she lost interest. Dropping down from her boulder, Darcy slowly strolled off into Darkar's fortress in search of something else to entertain her. Almost as an after thought, she released the hold she had on the shadow monsters minds and then left them to bleed to death. There were countless shadow monsters lurking around Shadow Haunt. No one would miss those two.

Darcy was _bored_. Shadow Haunt should have been ideal for a witch as dark as her. Unfortunately, it was not the ideal place for someone if they were going through adolescence, mainly due to the fact that Shadow Haunt was situated in an underground cave network miles from anywhere remotely considered fun. Unless one was a bat or a trog, one couldn't live in the Under Realm without feeling its walls press in around you. Darcy had grown up in a modern world with shopping malls, pubs and large social environments, so the isolation of Shadow Haunt was killing her. She had nothing to distract her from the long hours of the day. There were no other girls to rule over, no nerds to torment and no boys to toy with. Instead she had traded all that for the company of her sister, the future Lord Darkar promised them and countless shadow monsters at her disposal.

But even that didn't satisfy her.

Darcy was feeling peevish and she was itching for a fight. Physical, verbal, magical. She didn't care. She just wanted something to rip her claws into to try and release some of the frustration that had bottled up inside of her.

And that someone presented themselves in the form of Stormy.

"Curse that Musa. I gotta rip those pig tails of hers out with my bare hands," Stormy snarled to herself as she stalked through the caves. Her hands were balled into tight fists with bolts of electricity sparking from them, her teeth were clenched and she was absolutely seething. Stormy was exactly was Darcy was looking for.

"So I take it you couldn't find Alfea's piece of the Codex?" Darcy asked mockingly. Stormy tried to ignore her older sisters taunting, but she couldn't stop an animal like growl escaping from her throat. "How tragic. You snuck out in the middle of the night to try and find their Codex in order to win Darkar's favour, but you just ended up getting your butt kicked by a pixie. It's almost so sad it's funny."

"Shut your mouth Darcy or I'll shut it for you," Stormy growled viciously.

"Careful Stormy. You've already been beaten once tonight. Let's try not to make you any more pathetic than you already are."

"Don't you dare talk to me about who's the pathetic one, Darcy," Stormy snarled, turning around to glare at her sister. "I'm not to one who been lounging around bewitching the monsters to destroy each other. At least I've been trying to get all the pieces of the Codex so we can obtain the Ultimate Power. You've been spending all your time lying in sloth."

"I've been waiting for the right opportunity to steal the Codex to present itself instead of rushing in and blundering it up like you did."

"I can't help but notice that every time we accuse you of being too hesitant you claim that it's tactical."

"It is."

"Well how very convenient," Stormy spat.

Darcy's golden black eyes narrowed. "What exactly are you trying to say, Stormy?"

"You know exactly what I'm trying to say. You've become weak, my dear sister."

"How dare you," Darcy hissed, her voice dripping with venom.

"Oh, I dare. Over the past year you've become soft and timid. You're now only half the witch you were as a child.?"

"Well at least that means I'm still better than you."

"_Argh! Thunder Storm!_" the Weather Witch screamed, throwing her magic out in front of her. Bolts of lightning flew at Darcy and large shock waves ripped stones to splinters as the rumble of thunder echoed off them.

"Pitch Black," Darcy countered, thrusting up a wall of pure darkness in front of her. The darkness absorbed Stormy's attack, leaving Darcy completely unscathed. "See? I told you."

"Damn you!" Stormy seethed, throwing another attack Darcy's way which the elder of the two easily blocked.

"No wonder Musa kicked your ass," Darcy tormented as she threw a couple of dark darts at Stormy, working her sister up more.

"You're gonna pay for that!" Stormy promised, but before she could do anything, a voice like a cracking whip ripped through the air, causing the two quarrelling sisters to freeze in their attacks.

"Darcy! Stormy!" Icy shouted from her place in one of the higher caverns of Shadow Haunt. "What the hell do you two think you're doing?"

"Just re-establishing the pecking order," Darcy told her evenly, her golden eyes burning into Stormy, who growled at her comment.

"You idiots! Did you even stop to think about what you were doing throwing all those thunder attacks around? Did you forget we are in a cave?" Icy spat, glancing at the shattered boulders and the fallen stalactites that had come crashing down from the ceiling due to Stormy's attack. Stormy looked humiliated while Darcy looked smug and when Icy saw this she quickly added. "I would have thought that you Darcy would at least have enough intelligence to notice that."

Darcy's eyes narrowed, but she bit her tongue and refused to respond. Picking a fight with Stormy was one thing, but taking on Icy was a whole different ball game. When the Ice Queen failed to get a response out of her two sisters, Icy gave them both a chilling look and then vanished off into the shadows, muttering curses to herself. Darcy and Stormy glared at each other one last time before Darcy got bored with the idea of picking a fight with her little sister and decided to find some other form of entertainment.

"Later loser," Darcy hissed, gliding past Stormy.

"I'm not the one who's been acting like a loser recently," Stormy snarled back, stopping Darcy in her tracks. Apparently her dear little sister had some fight left in her after all.

"Excuse me?"

"Over the last few months you've been acting odd," Stormy told her, and it wasn't an argument. It was an accusation.

"I have not."

"You have so. You've been moping around ever since we failed with the Army of Decay."

"Duh? We lost."

"That's just it; you were mopey before we even left for Alfea."

"I have no idea what you're taking about," Darcy lied, storming off into the shadows. She knew what Stormy was going on about and she also had an idea of what may have caused it.

That was the day she broke up with Riven.

* * *

"Hey, do you know that Musa isn't actually royalty?" Brandon asked, striding into the juniors common room. His squad was all there, watching TV while they finished their homework; a combination every student in existence knew never really worked, but they still continued to do it regardless.

'What are you babbling about?" Riven asked, craning his neck backwards over the armrest of the couch he was lounging on so that he was looking at Brandon upside-down.

"Musa. She's not a real princess."

"Uh-huh. And is Stella a real blonde or is that just a lie too?" Riven asked, straightening his neck and returning his attention to the TV.

"Dude, I'm being serious."

"Brandon, Musa's a princess," Sky told his squire. "Ms. Faragonda announced her as Princess Musa when she sung at least years start of year mixer. Her father is the only child of Musa's granddaughter, who's currently the Queen of the Harmonic Nebular. So I'm sorry Brandon, but it think you're mistaken. Musa's a princess."

"Sky, I know all that stuff about her family, but she's still not a real princess."

"Why? Is she missing the authentic Princess tag that proves she's a product of the Perky Princess Company?" Riven asked sarcastically, getting tired of Brandon's ridiculous chatter.

"No. Her father was disowned by his parents when he decided to pursue a musical career when he was younger instead of focusing on the matters of state like his mother wanted him to," Brandon explained. "Musa's not royalty because her dad has no claim to what was his birthright."

"Are you serious?" Riven asked, suddenly no longer interested in what was on TV.

"I'm serious. I just overheard Musa telling Layla everything," Brandon told them all.

"I think Diaspro said something about this last year, but I thought she was just being . . . well, Diaspro," Sky said, before a thought hit him. "Hang on, Musa's father was an only child, so if they've disown him then who's heir to the throne of the Harmonic Nebular?"

"The King has a younger bother whose currently been named heir, but there's a massive legal battle over whether or not he has the right to ascend the throne," Helia, the only one who was actually do his homework, informed them all.

"Why?" everyone else asked at once.

"Because the King was the one who married into royalty, not the Queen and as a direct descendant of the Queen, Musa's bloodline is more pure. The case has been adjourned for now until Musa's reaches her twenty-first birthday."

"Why her twenty-first?" Sky questioned.

"Because in the Nebular's society, that the age where she's legally classes as an adult and she can challenge her great uncle for the throne or reject it forever. You guys didn't know this?"

"No," Timmy admitted sheepishly. They had been Musa's friend for over a year and yet they really had no idea about her family situation. They knew she had lost her mother at a very young age and that she never really got over it. She had never really liked to talk about her mothers' death since it always ended with her in tears, and it was because of that reason that the boys tended to avoid the topic all together.

"And that's not all," Brandon told them.

"There's more?" Timmy asked, his eyes widening.

"Yeah. Apparently, her mother died while on a concert tour. She was sick and literally worked herself to death for the sake of putting on a good show. Musa's dad took it just as bad as Musa did and believes that it was because of the tour that his wife never let herself get treated for her illness, which is why he's forbidden Musa from pursuing a career in music."

"What?" Sky gasped. Telling Musa that she couldn't pursue a career in music was like telling Stella that she could no longer centre her life around fashion. That just didn't happen.

"If that's true, then how did she get on that Wizard-pa-looza tour last summer?" Riven asked, his expression unreadable.

"Because she told her father that she was attending a summer potions course and then ran off with a bunch of rock stars," Brandon told him.

"She lied?" Riven said before laughing out loud. "You're right Sky, she is as good a liar as me." (1)

"You're not angry about it?" Helia asked.

"Gods no. I applaud it. Lying is an art, after all, much like those stupid sketchy things you do."

"Thanks."

"So what do we do?" Brandon asked Riven.

"About what?"

"About Musa! She's scheduled to do that performance at festival in a few days and with her dad here she might not perform which leaves us without a main show. What are we going to do?"

"If Musa doesn't want to perform, we can't make her," Riven pointed out. "This thing's between her and her dad. There's no need for us to get involved."

"This is exactly why nobody likes you," Brandon snapped. "You're not a team player."

"Don't you need to practice that fire twirling thing Codatorta signed you and Sky up for?"

"Yes I do and you're still a jerk!" Brandon said, stomping out of the room like a pouting child.

Riven calmly looked over at Sky and said with a serious face, "This is why we need to cut some of his sugar out of his diet."

* * *

Darcy had tried to fight her boredom by reading through one of the old parchments that Shadow Haunt had on offer in the vain hope that she might learn something worthwhile and advance her dark magic. Unfortunately, Darkar had very little interest in books and had neglected them in the many years he had hidden himself away in this underground hell hole so most of the scrolls he had in his possession were half rotted since someone had conveniently left them under a dripping roof.

'_It's always the way, isn't it?'_ Darcy thought to herself glumly as she tried to piece together what this document she was reading was actually about. Glancing up from yet another unfinished sentence, Darcy stared aimlessly at a rock wall for a long time without thinking anything, and then one clear thought entered her mind.

'_I am really getting sick of looking at nothing but rocks all the time.'_

Returning her attention back to the scroll, Darcy tried to lose herself in the mouldy writing before her, but she gave up on that when a slight movement off in the distance caught her eye. Looking up, Darcy saw a girl with straight, brown hair that fell past her shoulders duck through the caves. She was a pretty little thing that could pass as either witch or fairy but Darcy recognized her face instantly. Looking both way to make sure the coast was clear, the girl ran off into the shadows. With a sly smile Darcy rolled up the parchment and got to her feet.

"Where are you going, Stormy?" Darcy asked the darkness. "I guess the only way I'll know is if I follow you."

* * *

For years, Brandon had had a bit of a reputation of being a flirt and a ladies man. Ever since he had arrived at Red Fountain, Brandon's romantic career had dealt almost exclusively with the fairies of Alfea, but on the first day of the Red Fountain fundraiser weekend, Brandon was starting to get the feeling that he had limited himself by just focusing his efforts solely on fairies when he found himself in the company of two very attractive if not a little odd Cloud Tower witches.

"So, are you ladies interested in giving yours truly a good luck kiss before the sword and shield bouts?" Brandon asked charmingly. "You see, if you give a hero a good luck kiss and then he goes on to win the competition, you go in the draw to win a gift voucher at either Tommy Hillfairy or Aberzombie and Witch. Plus there's a prize for the hero who raises the most kisses. Tickets are only two bucks each or you can get three for five dollars."

"Do you do other favours for money too?" one of the witches by the name of Kristee asked wickedly, twirling a strand of her long brownish/grey hair around one finger.

"I think you can only get away with that kind of thing in Magix's red light district," her friend whose short haired was an odd shade of pure white and whose name was even odder, smirked.

"Fawks, I'm making sure I get my money's worth," Kristee grinned, and even though he wasn't a hundred percent positive, Brandon was pretty sure she was joking.

"Well, that all depends on the number of tickets you buy," Brandon smirked.

"Use a condom!" Fawks supplied cheerfully.

"So, does that mean I can put you two ladies down for some tickets?" Brandon asked. He was currently tied with Kane for the most tickets sold and he wasn't going down without a fight. "I don't have a hope of winning the combat bouts without some good luck from such gorgeous ladies like yourselves."

Despite the fact that they were both witches, the two Cloud Tower students couldn't help but giggle at Brandon's flattery. As soon as Fawks was able to compose herself, she asked, "But don't you have a girlfriend?"

"I do, but see we already talked it out. I mean, these good luck kisses are for charity. We're raising money to get the jousting team some new uniforms," Brandon justified. In actual fact, he hadn't even informed Stella of the kissing booth, but he was still mad at her so he really didn't care.

"Well, we'll have to run and find our purses first," Kristee smiled promisingly.

"Can we leave you a little lipstick before we go?" Fawks asked, an odd grin on her lips and a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Sure, but just leave it on my cheek, okay?" Brandon told the girls. So far he had only ever received and given kisses on the cheek and on the odd occasion the neck since he wasn't technically single, but he kind of liked the idea of parading his success around for everyone to see. The witches giggled and then suddenly ran off without giving Brandon the kiss they had promised him, but they did leave something else in both of his hands. "Huh? What's this? They actually left me lipstick?"

Staring after the two witches, Brandon saw them turn and wave cheekily at him. Kristee even dared to blow him a kiss and Brandon couldn't help but laugh. That was one odd pair of witches that was for sure.

Never one to linger too long on the failures of the past, Brandon scanned the crowd in search of his next target since there was no way he was going to let Kane beat him. After skimming over the girls who already had male company, Brandon's brown eyes fell on a rather pretty young lady that caught his attention for some reason. She was a bit of a looker, not doubt about that, and Brandon couldn't recall ever noticing her at any of the other interschool mixers they had had before. She could have passes as either fairy or witch, but today Brandon was quickly getting past his prejudice in the name of the festival and beating Kane.

"Ooh, hey there. You wonna kiss a hero?" he asked the girl with his trade mark charm. "Doesn't cost much and it's all for a good cause."

The girl just glared at him and there was something about her intense aqua green eyes made Brandon get the feeling he had met her before. "Argh! Get lost, loser!"

"Er, sorry," Brandon apologized, a little taken back by the girls – who he was now positive was a witch – attitude. And his luck with girls today wasn't improving when he heard a familiar, callous laugh come from behind him.

"Do you know what I find so entertaining about this situation?" a voice with a similar accent to Tecna's said, but there was a notable sharpness in this girls voice that reminded Brandon of a double edged blade. "It's the fact that we're both now in our junior year at high school and you still have absolutely no idea how to treat a woman, Casanova."

"Well, Victoria, if you can someday manage to dig up the slightest trace of oestrogen out of that waif-like shell you like to call a body – I know, sounds impossible – then maybe we'll talk," Brandon grinned charmingly.

Victoria was a fairy which Brandon had the great displeasure of knowing since freshmen year. As an heiress of noble birth from the Realm of Zenrith, Victoria had similar digital power and technical know-how as Tecna, but unlike the Winx Club member, Victoria could be thrown in with a bunch of witches and no one would be able to tell her part from the group. She had short, dark hair which was cut into a trendy bob and well tanned skin, which was a rarity on Zenrith. While fairies were usually all rather thin, Victoria slight frame was boarder line dangerous and she liked to ware tight fitting clothing to display just how skinny she was. Her tradition outfit consisted of a designer label little black dress that hide absolutely nothing and shoes which cost several thousand dollars. Brandon was almost positive that every junior girl at Alfea thought she was a callous, self-centred, manipulative bitch, but that did not change the fact that every time Victoria said 'jump', the other fairies would instantly reply with 'how high?' Victoria was normally surrounded her four friends who all tried to dressed like her and act like her and who all systematically despised her, but it was better to be her lackey than it was to be her enemy. Stella had been in Victoria dorm room during her first year of Alfea before the rest of the Winx Club came, and it was because of Victoria that no one in the junior year ever spoke to Stella any more. (2)

Because of that, Stella no longer called her by her real name, but simply referred to her as 'the Evil Stick Insect with no Soul'.

Victoria smiled in a way that didn't show her teeth, and Brandon got the impression of an animal trying not to bare its fangs. "Oh Brandon," she cooed in a voice that dripped with venomous sarcasm. "You are just too funny. Seriously, your sense of humour really shows your breeding."

"Don't you have a goat to go and suck dry along with the rest of your swarm or something?" Brandon asked, spotting the rest of Victoria's half staved posse standing not far away.

"Actually, for your information, I have a date."

"Really? I can not tell you how pleased I am for you. But does he have his own transport? After all it is a long trip from the seventh level of hell and traffic at this time of day would be dreadful."

"Yeah, you're funny, serf," Victoria said, dropping what little humour she had. "But believe it or not, I didn't just start talking classless, worthless serf just for the sake of general conversation. I came over to inquire just how are you going with my dear friend Stella?"

"We're fine," Brandon answered shortly. He knew he was lying, but he sure as hell wasn't giving Victoria the satisfaction of knowing that. Unfortunately, Victoria saw right through it.

"Ohh, is the honeymoon period over?" Victoria pouted mockingly. "Seriously Brandon, did you really think it would ever work? I mean, come on. Stella might be stupid, but that doesn't change the fact that she's a princess, and royalty do not consort with peasants who live with rats on the floor."

"My house does not have rats on the floor," Brandon snarled.

"Poetic license," Victoria waved off with a perfectly manicured hand. "And let's face it; you and Stella were doomed from the start. Stupid as she is, Stella's never going to remained stuck to a loser like you. People go with their own kind, Brandon. So fingers crossed you find some penniless whore for you to hook up and breed or whatever you poor people do, and leave the upper class for someone of better ranking."

"And this is a concern to you how exactly?" Brandon asked bitterly.

Victoria shrugged. "I have to go to high class dinners and events that Stella often goes to, and the last thing I need in my life is some squire dragging down the dignity of those events. It's bad enough Stella's there. I prefer to be surrounded by people of importance, such as my date for this evening."

Brandon followed Victoria's eye line and when he saw the Red Fountain student walking towards them, he almost gagged. "Justin? You're dating crow boy?"

"His father is a very powerful Duke so you should treat him with a little more respect," Victoria told him firmly before breaking into a smile that looked somewhat rehearsed as Justin approached her.

"Victoria my dear, you look absolutely breathtaking," Justin greeted, accepting her hand and kissing the back of it formally.

"Oh, Justin, you're too sweet," Victoria blushed coyly.

"So much so that I think I'm going to be sick," Brandon said loudly, earning a death glare off each of the noble teenagers.

"Brandon, since there's no one's coat to take, I see no reason for you being here," Justin spat, his black eyes narrowed and his long, pointed nose looking extremely fierce. It had healed well since Helia had broke it and Brandon had a suspicion that a large sum of Justin's daddy's money had gone towards ensuring that his son nose was cosmetically fixed so that he could continue the facial feature that had been a part of their household for countless generations.

"Don't worry, I'm already leaving," Brandon assured them. But before he could leave, he had to have one more dig at the annoying couple. "You know, I've heard that some female insects eat the male once they've mated. So, fingers crossed."

Although pleased that he had been able to leave the conversation with the last word, Brandon still felted somewhat sickened on several different levels as he walked away.

* * *

Out of the three Trix Sisters, it was Darcy who excelled at shape shifting and altering her appearance. The year before it had been appointed to her to pose as Stella in order for them to search for the Ring of Solaria and it had certainly not the first time she had used her talent to destroy people's lives and cause havoc. Which is why even though Stormy's disguise was pretty good, it had nothing compared to what Darcy did to herself.

Cancelling out the blonde tinge she had in her hair, Darcy darkened her long locks to a deep hazel colouring and pulled the upper half of her hair into a small braid to give her a slight fairy-like look. She added a bit of brown to her eyes to make them appear more like honey as oppose to her striking golden ones and raised her cheek bones in order to alter her face slightly while still remaining breathtakingly beautiful. Finally, dressed in a black short skirt, a plain white top and black knee length boots, Darcy entered the gates of Red Fountain and none of the sentries recognized her.

"Those boys really go all out when they throw a party," Darcy noted to herself, observing all the various stalls that the boys had set up in order to fundraise for their school. The campus was pack with people due to the fact that all of Alfea and Cloud Tower had been invited to this little shindig, and the thought of the three schools getting all chummy together made Darcy nauseous. But the fairies and witches all seemed to stick to their own kind while the boys slipped between the two looking for a bit of tail. "At least some things never change."

Darcy had lost sight of Stormy after she had teleported herself from Shadow Haunt to Red Fountain, and since she was in no actual rush to hunt her sister down, Darcy simply allowed herself to wander the campus, watching people and bewitching inanimate objects just for a bit of fun. She didn't use any serious magic since she did not want to alert Stormy or the guards that she was there, but she used enough to keep herself occupied.

Eventually, Darcy found herself being pulled towards the direction of the stadium amongst a sea of students. The Dark Witch had to admit that the school for heroics and bravery had really improved their campus ever since they ditched the dank old fortress they used to live in. Darcy had spent a lot of time at Red Fountain with various different boys during her years attending Cloud Tower, and she felt slightly cheated of the fact that she had had to put up with drafty halls in the past. The stadium was filled with students who had come to see the performance that Red Fountain was putting on. There was going to be acts put on by all three schools as well as a few acts from Magix City. Cloud Tower was putting on an advanced cauldron and potion display complete with coloured smoke and hex lights. Alfea was showing off their impressive spell skills as well as a dance sequence and a singing display, leaving all the martial arts and combat demonstrations for the Red Fountain boys. The performances were due to continue will into the night, and of course none of them interested Darcy. Loosing interest in the thought of stalking her sister, Darcy turned on heel in order to leave when she ran head long into a Red Fountain student that was all too familiar to her.

"Sorry," Riven said gruffly in a tone that indicated that he really hadn't put any sincerity behind his apology at all, but the sound of his indifferent voice made Darcy freeze in her tracks.

He was just how she had always remembered him being; irritable, callous and damn good looking. Ever since she had first laid eyes on him that night at Alfea, Darcy had always had a strong physical attraction to the cold outsider. His face was handsome enough to grab her attention and he had an excellently crafted body. Darcy had always gone for the more toned and muscled men – 'all brawn and no brains' is what her sisters had always described her choice in men as – but there was an intelligence that lurked behind those well defined muscles that Darcy had thrill at. The two of them had shared a similar state of mind that always slipped into the darker side of life and as a lover Darcy had known no equal.

Darcy had been bored over the last few weeks, and she got the feeling she had just discovered a way to break it.

"No problem," Darcy grinned, her honey brown eyes looking him over slightly before returning to fix on his violet ones. Riven noticed her observations of him, and shifted uncomfortably.

"Do I know you?" he asked. While he was fairly sure he had never met this girl before, he did get the feeling that she was very familiar to him. Watching her face keenly, Riven tried desperately to try and remember the girl somewhere in his memories, but he just couldn't seem to place it anywhere.

"Do you want to?" Darcy answered his question with one of her own. She allowed her look to become hungrier, knowing that Riven wasn't an idiot and would pick up on her intentions quickly enough.

"I'm not sure," Riven confessed. He wasn't stupid enough not to notice the fact that this girl was shamelessly flirting with him, and although any average teenaged boy would be leaping at this unknown girls advances, Riven found himself being a bit on the hesitant side. Firstly, he couldn't even identify whether this girl was a witch or a fairy and yet he still had the niggling feeling that he had met her before. Secondly, Riven was not the most affectionate of guys and felt it extremely difficult to start courting girls he knew let alone total strangers. And thirdly, he was still hooked up on that damn pixie Musa to the point that even now, he couldn't help but notice the difference between the musical fairy and the girl standing in front of him and find that this unknown girl that was hitting on him was the paler of the two. He had absolutely no interest in picking up some stranger for a one night stand.

"I can help you make up your mind," Darcy offered, running her hand up his arm in a somewhat intermit manner. Riven tensed at her contact, but he couldn't work out if was from distaste or delight.

Darcy smiled seductively up at her ex, and Riven felt his pulse quicken and his resistance waver. He was willing to admit to himself that he did have certain feelings for Musa, but he had never actually made any official move on her which technically left him free to do whatever he want and this girl was definitely starting to look very tempting.

Fortunately, just as Riven's will started to slip, he heard someone call out his name, breaking his trance. "Hey, Riven!"

Looking back over his shoulder, Riven noticed Helia standing not far off, his cobalt eyes fixed on the two hormonally charged teenagers. The art student had been watching the two of them pretty much since the start, and he had immediately noticed how hesitantly and troubled Riven had looked. Helia could tell Riven really didn't want anything from this girl, but he could see that the normally strong student was quickly losing a battle against his temptation and after the way Riven had arranged to get Justin and his goons off Helia's back, the least he could do was help his friend out of a sticky situation.

Riven shot a relieved grin back at Helia before facing the girl again to blow her off as politely as he could. "Look, I gotta go an – "

But whatever excuse he was going to come up with was sharply cut off when Darcy – never one who liked to lose her prey – took firm hold of the front of his uniform and dragged him down to kiss him fiercely on the lips. Riven's eyes widened and his heart slammed against his chest as Darcy's intoxicating smell and taste washed over him. Her tongue slide hungrily over his with well practiced talent that left him weak at the knees and the way her small lithe body pressed itself firm up against his was very inviting.

Then, just as suddenly as she had kissed him, Darcy pulled away, leaving him with passion clouded eyes and a craving for more.

"If you ever want to finish this, come find me," Darcy told him in a deep, throaty voice and hooded, seductive eyes. And then, with one final wink, Darcy shoved Riven away from her and vanished into the crowd without a backwards glance.

"Who was _that_?" Helia asked as soon as he joined his roommate. The two of them were left staring in the direction that the girl had gone, both rather shocked at what had just happened.

"I . . ." Riven stammered, rubbing his lips were the girl had attacked him. There was something very familiar about the way that girl kissed, but it couldn't be. Could it?

Suddenly, they were joined by Brandon who looked as if he had ran all the way through the crowd to get to them. "Dude, I so saw that," he told Riven. "Who the hell was that chick?"

"I . . . I dunno."

"You don't know?" Brandon repeated.

"I don't think I do."

"You're unbelievable, you know that?" Brandon said, shaking his head in disbelief. "You're a total prick to girls and yet for some reason they still can't get enough of you (3). It's a damn good thing you didn't enter the good luck kissing competition 'cause you would have wiped the floor with us."

"Who won that, by the way?"

"Kane."

"Dammit squire. Can't you do anything right?"

"Apparently not which is why I need you to come help me put my war paint on for that tribute to the Founding Fathers of Red Fountain thing me and Sky gotta do."

"Can't you make Sky do it? I've kind of just been sexually assaulted."

"Sky's gotta do himself and Timmy's helping him which means I have no one."

"Then take Paintbrushes 'ere," Riven suggested, jerking a head towards Helia. "He's better at that kinda stuff than I am."

"Fine. Just the two of you come with me now!"

* * *

"Wow. These turned out pretty good," Sky noted, observing the tribal art that Helia had painted on his and Brandon's bodies. They were symbols that apparently meant a lot to Red Fountain's history, but Sky couldn't remember off the top of his head exactly what each symbol meant, however they looked cool none the less. Sky had gotten Timmy to try had help him paint them on, but all their efforts seemed to resemble a three-year-olds finger painting. Then Helia had arrived with Brandon and Riven and the task was passed to the professional. And the result was better than Sky could have imagined.

"They're all right," Brandon shrugged. He knew that they were in fact incredibly detailed and well drawn, but that didn't change the fact that Riven was spending more time with his new friend Helia instead of with them. However, there was no time for childish sulking as Codatorta – who was dressed in a coat and tails for his roll as the show's MC – walked out on stage to introduce the next act.

"And now, to honour the Founding Fathers of Red Fountain, two of our best students will be performing for you this evening the Traditional Fire Dance of the Elders," Codatorta announced. "I give you Brandon and Prince Sky!"

With a deep breath, the two teenagers started twirling the large staffs which stood as tall as either of them in a well practiced and synchronized routine. In their freshmen year, their entire grade had been taught the basics of how to use a bo staff since it was a useful and easily found weapon, and as a little incentive to make it fun, they had included fire twirling as part of the class. The students had really enjoyed that lesson, particularly the part where Lex accidentally set his hair on fire.

Brandon had remembered a lot from that class back in freshmen year – although a lot of it did focus on memories of Javelin calmly announcing to Lex that he was on fire and the commotion that followed it – but there was two things he had kind of forgotten; how hot fire was when it was thrown repeatedly around your head and how strong kerosene smelt. (4)

Finally, the two students cast their staff's into the air and after crossing each other, the flaming staffs fell into the hands of the opposite teenager which had been twirling it before and the Traditional Fire Dance of the Elders came to an end.

"Alright, that was Brandon and Prince Sky! Let's have a big round of applause for them!" Codatorta told the audience, but they were already cheering for him without the combat instructors prompting. "And now, it is my pleasure to welcome to the stage our next performer. Here to sing for ya is a very special fairy from Alfea. Her charm and charisma is only equalled by her amazing musical talent. This girl is a star in the making! Put your hands together for Musa!"

A deafening erupted from the crowd, making Riven cringe at the sheer volume of it. Despite the fact that she was only a sophomore, Musa had developed a strong reputation at all three schools as being an impressive songstress. They were all well aware of her musical talent in regards to her magical attacks which she displayed repeatedly during the Great Witch Invasion, so they were all eager to see how well she would transfer over to entertainment. Because her performance at the opening ceremony of Red Fountain's new campus was cancelled to at a Lio Dragerus attack, so far Musa had only really preformed publicly at the Alfea/Red Fountain start of school mixer during her freshmen year and all memories of that performance had lead people to suspect one hell of a show.

The curtains open and out ran Musa with her arms spread wide and her guitar hanging in front of her. While most people would freeze in front of as many people that packed the stadium, Musa looked right at home up there. She stood alone on stage, but she still managed to hold the attention of the student body of three schools, their teachers and several important guests that Saladin had invited. "Hey!"

"Go Musa!" Riven heard Bloom cheered from somewhere in the crowd, but Riven couldn't move his eyes off the stage to try and spot her in the audience. A wide grin spread across Riven's normally monotone face as he stared up at the musical fairy. Even though she had dressed down for the show – which Riven guessed had something to do with her wanting people to focus on her lyrics than what assets she was showing off – that damn pixie was able to hold his attention in a way that every other act before hand had failed to do. He didn't know if she was the Crowned Princess of the Harmonic Nebular or just the only child of a disowned songwriter and frankly he didn't care. He thought she was damn hot either way.

"This is the first song my dad ever wrote for my mom," Musa's voice rang over the loud speakers which were only slightly louder than the crowds cheering. But as her fingers strummed across the strings of her guitar, the crowd quieted as if spelled. Most of them had been expecting a hip hop song, but the tune she played out was much softer, gentler and more tender than any of them had anticipated.

_Oh . . . _

_Lonely mountains and tragic spells_

_Forbidden potions from haunted realms_

_Sea of star dust light years apart_

_Fields of dragons that will rip your heart _

_I faced them all and I survived _

_To get right here as you arrived _

_And when I heard you voice and song _

_I knew that I finally belonged _

_Now I know we'll never part _

_Cause you magic lives inside my heart oh_

_And we'll always be together_

_Cause you magic lives inside my heart forever_

The crowd was silent for a moment before erupting into a deafening cheer. The song in its self was brilliant but there was no denying that it was all the more enchanting because of Musa's musical talent. By invitation of Headmaster Saladin, two leading songstress from the esteemed Wolfgang Amadeus Academy of Music (5) had arrived to enjoy the performance. Asides from being and excellent academy for individuals who wanted a career in music, students from Wolfgang Amadeus had a greater chance of landing a record deal than people who tried to do it on their own. And by the looks of it, they liked what they heard.

But there was one person in the crowd who didn't like what she was hearing and who certainly wasn't invited, was Stormy. She had kept a low profile all night so far, waiting for the right moment to strike and she was ready. Slipping out of her disguise, Stormy gathered her gloomix enhanced power in the palm of her hand and threw an atrocious lightning bolt right into the back of an older gentleman that no one recognized. The cheering and clapping suddenly turned the screams of alarm as the crowd spread, leaving the collapsed man at the mercy of the witch. Shock and fear had overrun nobility as the crowd stared in fear at the powerful witch. A majority of the fairies of Alfea and witches of Cloud Tower hadn't seen any of the Trix since they were defeated and sent to Light Haven at the end of the last school year, but the specialist of Red Fountain remembered all too clearly what had happened the last time a Trix had entered their campus so that even though she was one against the population of three schools, no one was willing to try and oppose her. After all, her sisters or worse, Lord Darkar, could be hiding somewhere amongst the masses was well.

"Dad!" Musa gasped into the microphone, informing everyone of the mystery mans identity and shocking them. The artist formally known as Prince Presley had been described in the past as being somewhat of a sex symbol, but the man that now lay flat on his face was a life time away from the man who had been writing and performing chart toppers two decades ago (6). "No!"

Stormy laughed wickedly at Musa's distress and her fathers pain. She had levitated herself off the ground so that everyone could see her. She wanted to everyone to witness Musa's humiliating defeat so that she could get the revenge she thought she rightly deserved. "Nobody move of the old man loses more than his hair," Stormy ordered everyone. She noticed that Saladin and a few of the other teachers had started to send orders out to try and contain her. But with Musa's father at her mercy, no one could attempt anything without putting him at risk. "Except for you, Musa. Get down here!"

"Let him go!" Musa begged, her voice shaking in rage and in fear. "He has nothing to do with this!"

"Sure, I'll let him go," Stormy promised, a purely malicious grin on her face. "As soon as you get down here and take his place! And you might want to hurry it up!"

Conjuring up another bolt of lightning, Stormy hurled her attack down at Musa's father squarely in the back causing him to cry out in pain. The entire crowd flinched as the electricity cracked through the air. Many of them – particularly the witches – had experienced Stormy's power first hand, so they knew that even though she was alone she was not one to be underestimated.

Musa, however, couldn't care less who Stormy was. She had attacked her father, and Musa sure as hell wasn't going to stand for that.

"All right! You asked for it! I took you out once and I'll take you out again!" Musa shouted as a bright red and purple light exploded out from within her. When it cleared, Musa stood on stage in her sparkly off the shoulder top and short skirt, her chunky knee length boots, funky ribbons tied around one arm and her headphones wrapped over her pigtailed head. Her navy eyes were narrowed and she was ready for a fight.

"Oh, we're not fighting Musa," Stormy told her firmly. "You're surrendering or I'm destroying your father right now."

Riven's violet eyes widened as panic started to tighten itself around his chest. He wasn't sure what 'surrendering' to Stormy entitled exactly, but he was sure it wasn't good. The Trix were deadly enough on their own, but ever since they had teamed up with Lord Darkar, they had crossed a line that they hadn't even dared to toe when they were in high school. She had unleashed a Mayhem Globe on Red Fountain campus which could have flattened the school and kill all the students inside it, and now there was a slightly insane glint in her eyes that indicated that she was going to get her revenge one way or another.

Musa bite her lower lip as she contemplated her next move. She didn't like the idea of giving up to Stormy – especially after she attacked her father – but there was no way she was going to put her father in any danger, not even for the chance to take Stormy down in front of a crowd this size. "Just don't hurt him."

"Musa! No!" her father begged meekly.

Ignoring her father, Musa descended down to lands back on the stage but instead of transforming back like Stormy would had expected, she moved over to the microphone to address the audience one last time.

"Good idea," Stormy grinned wickedly. "Get on the mic and give us some last words."

"Listen. I need each and every one of you to help me. Just sing with me, okay?" Musa begged and then – without waiting for a response – Musa started singing a simply, wordless tune that the crowd could easily follow along with. But instead of joining her, the crowd just shifted their stares between her and Stormy, totally confused at what was going on.

"One last song for your farewell concert?" Stormy asked, feeling somewhat pleased. It was brilliant enough that she was going to get her revenge, but having Musa make a fool of herself was just making her revenge taste all the more sweeter.

Unfortunately, Riven wasn't an idiot. He caught on to what Musa was trying to do almost immediately and when people still weren't understanding what Musa was asking of them, he had to step in and help her.

"Sing!" Riven ordered sharply, making several students jump. Not that he cared. They should have had the sense to figure this out on their own instead of having him hit them over the head with it. "Come on everyone! Just do what Musa says! Sing along! It'll help her! She gets her powers from music! She'll be able to blow this witch away if everybody sings!"

Finally, people got what Musa was asking them to do. Without the slightest bit of insecurity or hesitation, the two songstresses from Wolfgang Amadeus Academy of Music got to their feet and joined Musa in her simple song with incredible skill. Seconds later, the entire stadium – including the Cloud Tower witches – were lending their voice and the power of music to Musa and the attack she was conjuring up to take Stormy out. Riven was never one to consider himself to have any musical talent, so he delegated himself the role of supervisor. "That's it! Yeah!"

"What are you trying to do Musa?" Stormy shouted over the noise of the crowd, a notable level of panic in her voice.

"Something like this!" Musa shouted back before returning to her singing. Only this time, a small, white light started gathering in the palms of her hands. It was gradual at first, but quickly grew into something so powerful and bright that it actually hurt to look at as the power of the crowd singing intensified Musa's musical magic.

"Oh come on! What's going on here?" Stormy raged as her victory slipped away from her. With only the slightest bit of urging from Musa, the white hot attack in her hands floated up to hit Stormy directly, draining her gloomix of power and eliminated any chance for Stormy to counter attack. In fact, but the looks of it, she couldn't even muster the energy to block. "Ah! No! Stop it! _Ahhh!"_

With one final scream that linger, Stormy was hurled from the stadium and crashed painfully into the enchanted forest a fair distance from Red Fountain where she was far too injured and weak to even think of returning to the show for an encore.

"Stormy has left the building!" Musa announced to the crowd who erupted in the cheering that was several times louder than it was at the end of her first song. Slipping out of her winx form and back into her concert clothes, Musa sank to the ground utterly breathless but completely relieved. "Alright!"

Stella and Layla both ran out from back staged and dropped to the ground to envelop Musa in a tight hug, making it all the harder for the musical fairy to catch her breath, but judging from the smile on her face, she didn't mind in the slightest.

Riven wasn't sure when it happened, but he somehow found himself standing in front of Musa's father, holding out his hand in order to help the old man get to his feet. He really wasn't prepared to meet the father of the girl he was sorta-kinda-not-really seeing – not that he'd know what he'd say if he was give a months prior notice – so he just said the first that entered his mind. "Your daughter's really amazing, isn't she?"

Musa's father had instantly recognized Riven from his daughters' descriptions of her, and after a warm smile he reached out and accepted his help. He was a lot shorter than Riven to the point where the top of his head only just reached the students shoulders, but that didn't bother him. He was so full of pride for Musa that he felt six feet tall. "She sure is. She's just like her mother."

Once Layla and Stella had returned back stage and Musa had caught her breath, she got to her feet and beamed at the crowd. "Now how 'bout we get this show back on the road?!"

"An excellent idea!" Codatorta agreed, striding out onto the stage. He was a man who breathed disciple and order, so he wasn't will to let a little thing like a witch attack stand in the way of completing a well thought out program. "And now, to join Musa in another song, last years Miss Magix winner; Stella!"

The crowd broke out into another round of cheering, only this time they were accompanied by wolf whistles from a few of the Red Fountain boys. Stella of course was lapping it up shamelessly, but her graceful entrance was ruined when she tripped over her heels and fell flat on the face in front of the entire stadium. The crowd all burst out laughing – Riven in particular was almost floored from laughing so hard – but Stella seemed to look more insulted that anyone would dare laugh at her than embarrassed.

"Come on Stella! What do you say? Me and you together!" Musa grinned as her friend got to her feet. "Let's bring down the house! I hope that everybody is ready to move you feet 'cause this tune we're about to sing is call 'This is the Beat'!"

_All I really want is just one chance _

_To grab a boy and start to dance_

_All you go to do is move your feet_

_Cause baby here's the girl and this is the beat _

_Feel the magic get into the groove _

_Clap you hands and start to move _

_Baby that's the way two hearts meet _

_Oh_

_Here's the girl and this is the beat _

* * *

"Rivelle!" Brandon cried, running up to Riven and leaping onto his back with a bone crunching bear hug. Riven nearly folded under the unexpected weight, but he managed keep his feet and stop Brandon choking him with his affection. Musa and Stella were still on stage, entertaining the crowd with another song complete with Layla and two other fairies as back up dancers, and somehow, through a sea of dancing and cheering people, a few of Riven's friends had managed to track him down.

"Get off me," Riven growled, shoving the squire off of him but Brandon quickly reattached himself. Riven gave up, but that still didn't mean he had to like it. "You stink like kerosene."

"You still love me," Brandon grinned impishly.

"You're pushing it."

"Not bad, getting all those people to sing to help Musa," Helia said, clasping Riven on the shoulder that Brandon wasn't latched onto. "Though I can't help but notice that you didn't join in."

"Yeah, well, you don't expect the conductor of an orchestra to start playing along with everyone else in the band. He's job is to oversee it all and make sure it comes out right," Riven defended lamely. So singing wasn't his thing. Big deal. He was more than happy to leave it to the people who were good at it like Musa, but that didn't mean that he wasn't still embarrassed about the fact that he had played cheerleader in front of everyone, though he'd later discover that it did have its rewards.

It was late and the concert was just starting to wind down. Codatorta was giving his final speech which included thanks to everyone involved in the night and directions for the fairies and witches about how they were going to get back to their school. Riven was thinking about skipping off to his dorm to go to bed when a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind and hugged him tightly. His first impulse was to tell Brandon to piss off, but then he noticed that the arms around him were more slender and delicate looking that any male could have and instead of kerosene, he smelt a perfume he had learnt to recognize all too well.

"Thanks Riven!" Musa squealed, squeezing him tightly. She was on a massive buzz from the performance and from kicking Stormy's butt, so she found herself doing this that her emotionally shy nature would never let her do under normal circumstances. "I dunno what would have happened if you hadn't made everyone help out!"

"I-It's fine," Riven stammered, his entire body tense in her embrace and a bit of colour entering his cheeks. His heart was beating loudly at Musa's close proximity and for some reason his mouth had gone dry. Musa had somehow snuck herself under one of his arms and was currently grinning up at him widely. "Y-You sung well, you know, when you weren't being threatened by Stormy."

"Oh, that's sweet of you to say. And oh my gosh! Thank you so much for taking care of my dad," Musa beamed at him, making him smile despite himself. "He said you were very courteous."

"You sure he didn't confuse me with somebody else?"

Musa laughed. "You were great tonight," Musa said, standing on tip toes and brushing a light kiss across his cheek. Riven's heart pounded hard against his rib cage at the contact and when he saw Musa staring up at him charmingly, Riven subconsciously started to low his face down towards hers.

"Hey Musa! Where are you?!" Stella's voice called out and Riven had an almost undeniable desire to kill that damned harpy as Musa pulled back and looked in the direction that the voice had come.

"Stell! Right here!" Musa waved. When the Princess of Solaria spotted her, she ran over and seized her hand.

"Musa! You so have to come with me right now! Those songstresses from Wolfgang Amadeus Academy want to meet you! They loved your performance and they might even be considering you for a scholarship when you graduate!" Stella squealed, pulling Musa away. "Come on!"

"See ya, Riven," Musa muttered in a small voice, looking awkward for the first time during that conversation and a second later she was gone, leaving Riven feeling somewhat cheated.

Not far away, still hidden in her disguise, Darcy watch the entire exchanged and she too got the feeling that she had been cheated out of something she had really wanted.

* * *

_(1) Brothers at Arms. Chapter Seven: Grounded _

_(2) I'm gonna need an OC at Alfea and I works better if she's a bitch. I mean, I've got OC's at Cloud Tower and all throughout Red Fountain so it was only a matter of time before I got my claws into Alfea _

_(3) So true, ain't it? Riven is such a jerk and yet most people – my self included – can't get enough of him _

_(4) Now I've done a bit of fire twirling and the smell of kero . . . my god. I used tow work with a girl who did fire breathing and I have no idea how she could stand putting that stuff in her mouth and then spitting it out when there's clearly going to be some spray back. Yuck! _

_(5) Mozart's name is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I figure he deserves an academy in the magical dimension. He's earned it_

_(6) Elvis was a sex symbol. I don't see it _

_I have to admit that this chapter was a hard on to write. 4kids really screwed up on this one. Firstly I had to find a way to cover there is Musa a princess or not debacle. Secondly, the time line in this episode is screwed up because 4kids decided to be creative and add a Musa dream sequence in the middle of the episode which I simply chose to ignore. That scene with Brandon, the witches and Stormy actually happened on one day and the show was the following day, but that meant that Stormy was wondering around for a whole day in disguise. And thirdly, Riven was completely out of character in my opinion. But anyways, it's done and yes, I did merge The Artist Formally Known As Prince and Elvis Presley to make fathers now. And by the way, how short in he?_

_BTC._


	16. The Fourth Witch

_Okay, it's a new years so I guess it's about time for another update. I admit that I've been dragging my feet with this chapter, but it's only because this was one of the ones that gave me some trouble. I've gone back and changed it so many times that it looked kinda hacked up to me so I've been spending time trying to smooth it all out. _

_So, here goes nothing . . ._

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Sixteen – The Fourth Witch**

Darcy had always been surprised at how easy it was to infiltrate Red Fountain grounds.

The middle child of the Trix Sisters knew for a fact that Red Fountain classified her as an enemy and virtually all the students could recognize her on sight, but with a little help of an insignificant spell, Darcy was able to walk down the halls of Red Fountain and if anyone was to even look at her, they would instantly pass her off as nothing of importance and forget about her. It went against Darcy's natural instinct to let herself be ignored, but she let it go this time.

After all, she was a witch on a mission.

Darcy had become extremely bored and frustrated sitting around Shadow Haunt for days on end with nothing to do but wait for Lord Darkar to give them permission to go out and steal something. She was starting to get desperate for some kind of release, and the second her lips had touched Riven on that night of the concert Red Fountain had held not long ago, Darcy believed that she had found exactly what it was she needed to break her boredom.

She found Riven oddly enough in the Red Fountain library of all places. He was sitting alone at one of the secluded work tables hidden way at the back of the library, looking over the text of a large book with a bored expression. When they had been going out, Riven had regularly ignored the school work his teachers had given him so he could spend more time with Darcy in her bedroom, so she found it unusual to actually find him researching one of his assignments. But if there was one thing Darcy did well, it was distracting teenaged boys from their school work.

Darcy continued to maintain her insignificant spell until she had crept right behind him, and even with the trained ears of the thief, Riven didn't sense. With a wicked smile, Darcy dropped the spell and whispered hotly into his ear, "Hey Puppy."

Riven nearly jumped out of his skin and he leapt from his seat so quickly that he managed to over turn the chair he had been sitting on. Darcy watched the whole thing with an amused little smile while he glared murderously at her. "Darcy!" Riven hissed softly. "What are you doing here, witch?"

"Just stopping by," Darcy answered sweetly, leaning against the table casually. The witch watch as her ex studied her with narrowed eyes and she couldn't help but notice how his hands started to edge towards his side where he was no doubt keeping his weapons. "You try and pull anything on me, and I'm gonna flatten this library and everyone in it."

"You can't do that," Riven challenged her.

"Can't I?" Darcy questioned, holding up her gloomix. "You might not believe it Puppy Dog, but this little piece of bling packs one hell of a punch and I'm sure that these little book worms won't be able stand up to it, so believe me, it's best if you just keep your hands off your little toys there. After all, I'm here fun, not a fight."

"Is there much of a difference when it comes to you?"

"I guess not," Darcy agreed. "But let me put it this way; we've already stolen Red Fountain's piece of the Codex. What else is there that would be of any interest to Darkar?"

"That still doesn't explain why you're here."

"I didn't say that there wasn't anything of interest to me," Darcy informed with a look that slugged Riven right in the guts. He knew the thought that was behind that look all too well and even though he knew he shouldn't let her do this to him – _again_ – he still felt a strong element of desire pool at the bottom of his stomach.

"What are you doing?" Riven asked, trying to stop his pulse from quickening.

"I'm just looking for a little bit of entertainment," Darcy informed him truthfully, staring at him with smouldering golden eyes and posing her body in a way that she had learnt made her look most desirable, and judging by the way Riven's breathing suddenly became shallow, it was working. "So, what do you say?"

"I think you should leave," Riven finally managed to pant out. It was a stupid and pathetic thing to say to a Trix, but it was all he could manage at the moment. "Saladin will – "

"That old fool couldn't pick up on me being here even if I stood right in front of his wrinkled, old face," Darcy told him before standing up straight and moving closer to the boy she was trying to seduce. "Now come on. Don't you want to have some fun like we used do?"

_Yes._ "No."

"I don't believe you. I know you're not getting anything out of that pixie you're chasing, so just let it go for now. No one has to know. I'm sure as hell not going tell my sisters about being here, so there's no reason why we both can't keep a secret. You're good a doing that, aren't you Riv? It'll just be between you and me."

Riven swallowed hard. Ever since he had first met Darcy, she had been his ultimate temptation and it was very hard for him to refuse her. Their relationship had been sadistic and selfish with each of them using each other for their own purposes, but there was no denying that Riven didn't get all the satisfaction he would have wanted out of Darcy and those memories were inconveniently replaying themselves to him as he tried to resisted his ex's advances. "Darcy, don't."

"C'mon," Darcy urged, sliding closer to him. "You know you miss it. I can tell."

"That was you . . . t-the other night at the concert, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was. And don't think I didn't notice how you were getting into that kiss. I'm a little surprised you didn't come after me like I told you too, but no matter. I'm here now."

"Darcy," Riven breathed again, but he no longer stepped away from her advances.

Moving so suddenly and quickly that one could have easily mistaken it for an attack, Darcy closed the distance between her and the specialist she had been craving for, covering his mouth with a smouldering kiss. A burning poison seemed to enter Riven at her touch, awakening a deep craving which he could no longer deny. His body ached for him to wrap his arms around her and hold her close to him even though his sense were screaming at him to stop, but when she grinded her small body up against his, he lost all discretion.

Desire flooded over common sense to the point where Riven couldn't help but kiss her back. He had become addicted to so many things that were bad for him last year – cigarettes, excessive amount of alcohol, systematic rebellion against all forms of authority and so on – but none of them were as powerful and as difficult to give up as the addictive pleasure he got from feeling Darcy's soft and tempting body pressed up against his. Darcy was his drug; his ultimate form of addiction.

No longer concerned with common decency or the consequences of what might come out of this, Riven lift Darcy up off the ground and moved her until her had her pinned up against the wall. Her slim legs wrapped tightly around his waist so she could cross her ankles behind him, locking his hips against hers. Her dark purple nails dug into his bare arms to the point where they left red scratch marks behind, making Riven hiss in pain to which Darcy felt a sharp thrill, but neither of the let their pleasure or their pain break their lustful kiss. With a well practiced roll of her hips, Darcy reduced Riven to a quivering mess, allowing her to seize the power she wanted so desperately off him.

Unhooking her heels from behind him, Darcy pushed herself off the wall and backed Riven up against the table he had been working at. Tilting her head at just the right angle, Darcy delved deeper into Riven's mouth, and when she felt Riven drag his teeth long her bottom lip, she couldn't stop a pleading moan escape her throat.

She needed him, and she needed him now.

With buck of her hips, Darcy slipped her slender hands between their two bodies and brushed her fingers across his belt buckle. The light touch of her fingertips on his waist line almost made Riven's knees give way and his hands moved subconsciously to the witch's hips. Darcy shuttered when she felt one of his hands slip up under her shirt and the flesh to flesh contact made goose-bumps break out on her legs. With another moan, Darcy's clumsy fingers tried to undo Riven's belt.

"Hey Riv, do you know where that book on . . ."

Sky froze mid sentence when he rounded a shelf full of books and walked right into an intense make out session between one of his best friends and his sworn enemy. Riven responded instantly by shoving Darcy off him, but by that stage it was already too late. Sky was certain about what he had seen, and there was no lie that Riven could tell to get him out of this one.

Darcy glared at the Crowned Prince of Eraklyon in a combination of disappointment and irritation before wordlessly snapping her fingers and teleporting herself the hell out of there.

Riven stayed where he was, backed up against the table. He was breathing heavily as he tried to calm himself down. Common sense was slowly coming back to him and he was painfully aware of the fact that it was probably a good thing that he and Darcy had been interrupted before things got too far. It just sucked that it had to be Sky who interrupted them.

"What the hell do you think you were doing?" Sky demanded, his blue eyes blazing. He had been able to forgive Riven for the way he had acted throughout their sophomore year because he knew that it was all a direct result of the spell Darcy had put on him. But he sure as hell wasn't going to excuse Riven from making the same mistake twice when he should have known better.

Riven sighed heavily in pure frustration. Out of all the god damned people in this god damned realm, it had to be Prince Sky the Golden Boy who had caught him in that situation. "I dunno," Riven confessed before quickly slipping into his usual defence when dealing with awkward or emotional problem: he tried to avoid the issue entirely. "Now, what were you looking for?"

"Don't you dare think you can side step this, Riven," Sky told him in a firm voice that indicated that there was no way that he was going to let Riven get away with his usual mind games. "What the hell were you doing with that witch?"

"Sky, I can really do without this right now," Riven said, trying to brush Sky aside by returning his attention back onto the book he had studying before Darcy had shown up, though this time he couldn't actually read a word of what was in front of him. He could still feel Sky's eyes burning into him.

"I don't give a damn about what you can do without," Sky snarled. "Because I can tell you what I can do without; I can so do without having to stand by and watch as one of my friends ruins his life all on account of that bloody witch!"

"Just leave it alone," Riven growled, glancing at the other people in the Red Fountain library. They were either too submerged in their studies or they had gotten so used to Sky and Riven fighting that they no longer paid any attention them.

"No! Gods Riven! How can you be so stupid?" Sky spat. Riven looked up sharply, his violet eyes burning with a deep fury. "Did you learn nothing from last year? You betrayed your friends, ruined your health, nearly got expelled and endangered the entire universe! And after all that, I come and find you getting it on with the witch that caused it all! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"It's so bloody easy for you to just stand there and judge me, isn't it?" Riven hissed, his voice low and steady despite the fact that he was a whirlpool of rage on account of both Sky's scolding and his own stupid mistakes. "Everything always just so damn easy for you. You managed to lie to the entire school and your girlfriend about who you really were and yet you still come out as the golden boy."

"We're not talking about the Day of the Royals. We're – "

"Of course we're not bloody talking about it! How can we dare discuss the slightest possibility that the _awesome_ Crowned Prince Sky of Eraklyon could be anything less than perfect?" Riven snarled, his voice so heavy with sarcasm and venom that Sky almost recoiled from the tone of it. As a prince, Sky had been taught the importance of word and of what made up a speech, but whenever Riven felt like doing it, the street orphan could easily bury the prince in a verbal debate that cut straight to the core. "You're always going on and on about how much you want to be a normal person and yet you have absolutely no idea what it is to be a normal person!"

"Oh, and what? Being a sadistic, arrogant prick is what classifies normal these days"

"It's more normal than you're rose-tinted life you live behind the wall of your palace!"

"Hey! Being a prince isn't easy, you know! I have – "

"Isn't easy? You're preachin' to _me_ about how hard your life is? Shit Sky, do you know how much I would give to have to deal with all your crap instead of mine? I am one wrong move away from getting kicked out of this place and do you think that would be enough to keep me out of trouble? Hell no! I still can't stop pushing it!"

"Look, I understand that – "

"You don't understand shit, Sky! You don't understand a damn thing! There is a hell of a lot of difference sympathy and empathy and I don't want either of them off you!" Riven spat, storming past Sky with a rough shoulder shove.

"Riven!" Sky tried but Riven didn't want to hear any of it.

"Piss off Sky. You know, I really hope you get spelled one of these days so you can see how wonderful it is to be just as erroneous as everyone else," Riven snarled before storming off and Sky didn't try to follow him.

* * *

Riven managed to avoid Sky and any other of his friends for the remainder of the afternoon and well into the night. It wasn't his night to be in the kitchen, so Riven had simply skipped dinner which he was fine with. After what he had almost done with Darcy that afternoon in the middle of the library, he didn't have much of an appetite for anything other than cigarettes. He had almost given up the smokes for good, but that night he managed to smoke all that was left in the packet he had stored at the bottom of his dresser and half of the packet he had stole out of Lex's room while everyone was at dinner.

Lying back on a wall that lined a garden in a secluded part of the school where most smokers went for a cigarette, Riven stared up at the stars and exhaled a lungful of smoke into the air. He watched it numbly as the smoke dissolved and vanished against the night sky and as soon as it was all gone, he took another drag on his smoke.

"Those things will kill you," a voice informed him from the shadows, and Riven didn't need to look to know who it was.

"Go away, Helia."

"Now that's not very polite," Helia noted calmly with a subtle little smile that drove Riven crazy from time to time.

"What do you want?"

"Just checking in on you," Helia told him, sitting down on the wall Riven was lying on. "You missed dinner."

"Hasn't been the first time."

"Yes, but you also didn't have lunch today and you only picked at your breakfast this morning so I'm only assuming that you must be getting a tad on the peckish side."

"I've been hungrier before."

"I'm sure you have but I wasn't around then to drag you to a kitchen, now get up," Helia said, standing up and grabbing Riven arm to drag him up into the sitting position. Riven groaned loudly in protest but Helia wasn't going to let whine his way out of this one and pulled him to his feet. "Come on. Let's go see if Jacob has any left overs and you can eat it while he tells us explicit stories with colourful and unnecessary language."

"I like that colourful and unnecessary language," Riven mumbled as he regretfully let Helia drag him to his feet.

"I know. I've heard you use it. Come on."

Still looking a bit like a sulking child, Riven trudged alongside Helia towards the Red Fountains kitchen. Dinner was well and truly over so there were a couple of students roaming the halls, trying to find themselves something to do until lights out. There were even a few girlfriends and girls that certain boys hoped to eventually become girlfriends visiting the campus, though they would all require to leave before curfew. Normally the boys couldn't care less who was on their campus – provided they were civil and didn't try to blow their school up – but every now and then there'd be a guest that the boys would rather do without.

"Watch where you're going!" a fairy snapped sharply when she almost collided head on with Riven and Helia as they rounded a corner in the hallways. Her dark eyes glared at them angrily, but as soon as she got a good look at who she was speaking to, her irritation shifted quickly to disgust. "Eww, it's you."

"Hi Victoria, it's so good to see you," Riven greeted, his voice heavy with sarcasm. Helia hadn't had the pleasure of meeting Victoria yet, so he shot Riven a questioning look, but he kept his mouth shut.

"Whatever," Victoria spat with undisguised disgust. She had never liked Riven and she was not one to hide it. "I can't believe they still allow street scum like you attend this school. You know that Red Fountain is supposed to be an elite and exclusive school, so I don't understand how they like commoners like you and that squire go here."

"And I don't understand why they haven't transferred to over to Cloud Tower yet. Although having said that, I know a few girls over there and I hate to expose them to such a bitch like you."

"So you're still consorting with witches. Why am I not surprised?" Victoria asked sarcastically, her slim arms folded across her chest. "I always knew that despite the influences that someone with rank like Prince Sky has on you, you'd still associate yourself with people of a less than savoury nature. Breeding is what breeding does. After all, once a worthless little street rat, always a worthless little street rat."

"And once a bitchy little stick insect with no soul, always a bitchy stick insect with no soul," Riven shot back.

Victoria laughed, but there was little humour in her smile. "You're really something, street rat. It's hard to imagine what that sophomore Musa would want with you, even if she is the offspring of a rejected and disowned prince. Although I guess consorting with a peasant like you doesn't seem so bad when you consider that she comes from a family that's long deprived of royalty."

"Look, you're obviously not here to see us so why don't we just be on our way," Helia suggested, grabbing a hold of Riven's arm to drag him away from the horrible fairy and the shit storm she was stirring up, but Victoria refused to move out of their way.

"Oh, what's the hurry? It's been too long since I last caught up with my favourite street rat," Victoria said with false sincerity. There was an odd glint to her dark eyes that Helia would eventually identify as malicious intent, but for the moment he failed to classify it and foolishly let her continue. "Speaking of that royalless princess, how are things going with you and Musa? I haven't seen you sniffing around Alfea recently so I can only assume you're love life's going as well as that pathetic excuse for a squire."

"Oh piss off, waif. God knows we don't want about your and Crow Boy's relationship, so we'd appreciate it if the two of you kept your beaks out our personal lives. Come on Helia, we've wasted enough time here," Riven spat, moving passed the fairy. Helia followed after him, thankful that they were leaving such an awful and vindictive conversation, but just when he thought they were in the clear, Victoria called out something that made Riven pause.

"So if I knew something about your little girlfriend, you wouldn't want me to tell you?"

"What are you going on about?" Riven snapped, glaring back at the fairy.

"Oh, that's right. She's technically not your girlfriend since you're yet to make a move," Victoria noted. "Funny, I would have never picked you to be a shy one, Riv. I've heard the rumours that came out of Cloud Tower last year. You and Darcy were quite the little whores when you were together, weren't you."

"Shut it, woman," Riven growled, his nerves still a little raw from the fact that he had discovered that afternoon that he and Darcy were still quite the little whores even though they were no longer together.

"What's the matter? Hit a nerve?" Victoria almost purred.

"Hardly," Riven lied, folding his arms across his chest.

"Uh-huh. Whatever," Victoria dismissed casually before continuing on with her vindictive agenda. "You know what? I have to admit that I'm actually surprised at you, Riv. I always pictured you as a primitive, bestial, possessive kind of guy. I never would have pictured you of all people to be so . . . open-minded."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"This little open relationship thing you got going on with Pigtails. I really didn't see it coming."

"Open relationship? What?"

"Maybe we should just go?" Helia suggested. Victoria was obviously trying to bait Riven into something and Helia got the feeling that whatever it was, it wasn't going to end well. But when he tried to grab Riven's arm to lead him away from there, his friend simply shook him off.

"No, what are you talking about?" Riven demanded out of Victoria.

"Oh, just that little date that happened between your kinda girlfriend and that little nerd in your grade who's editor of you school news paper. What's his name again? Gerald? Jarrah?"

"Jared?" Riven asked, his mind going blank with rage and disbelief. What the hell was Musa doing with Jared?

"That's it. Apparently one of her friends set them up," Victoria informed him before pulling a feigned but none the less rather convincing innocent look. "Do you not know?"

"We're leaving," Helia said firmly, seizing Riven's wrist in a vice like grip and dragging him away forcefully this time. Riven instantly tried to pull away but Helia was surprisingly strong and refused to let him go.

"What the hell? Lemme go or I'll – "

"Unless you want Victoria to know that she got under your skin, I suggest you calm down at least until we're out of her sight," Helia hissed sharply. Looking back over his shoulder, Riven saw with a vast level of annoyance that Victoria was still watching them with a smirk on her face and she even had the nerve to give them an insulting little wave as a farewell. Growling, Riven let himself be led away by Helia, but as soon as they made their way outside, Riven ripped his arm free and started to swear fiercely. Leaning up against a tree with his arms folded across his chest, Helia let him vent for a few minutes before calmly noting, "You know, people can probably hear you."

"Like I give a shit!" Riven snarled viciously, his eyes blazing. He couldn't remember ever being angrier than he was right now – mind you, he was so angry he couldn't even remember his own name at that moment let alone any traces of his past – and he couldn't stop himself from pacing like some kind of wild animal. Too furious to even put together a string of curses, Riven kicked out savagely at another tree that surrounded them. A blinding pain erupted in his right foot, indicating that he had broken one toe, if not more. Riven would have been able to ignore the pain in his foot easily, except that it shot up his leg, causing the muscles in his upper thigh to seize up so that his entire leg felt like it was on fire. The blinding pain coupled with the fact that his rage was distracting trivial things such as his sense of balance and the desire to stay standing made him completely vulnerable, so when his left knee buckled he had absolutely no means to stop himself from crashing painfully down on his ass. He let out an incoherent bark that sounded like he was trying to say two swear words at once resulting is some strange merger of the two of them.

It took a lot for Helia not to let the amusement of Red Fountain's bad boy falling on his ass thanks to his own foolishness show in his face, but he did have to wait for a moment or two before he felt it was safe for him to speak. "Are you quite done?"

"I ain't done till I slam Jared's 'ead against some'in hard," Riven slurred, sounding more like the uneducated street rat than he had in years.

"Oh, I highly doubt that," Helia replied with his normal air of formality, unintentionally making Riven even more embarrassed about the way he had just spoken. "You may curse and kick and carry on now, but you're not going to attack anyone other than a tree over it. And you may be even more of a prick to Jared for now on, but you're not going to confront him over it."

"What makes you think that?" Riven growled, still rubbing his leg despite the fact that the cramp had passed. The idea of introducing Jared to the end of the sabre was sounding very appealing to him, though he had to admit that he had that same fantasy about everyone in his class at one stage or another.

"Because you are not an irrationally aggressive person," Helia answered and when Riven looked up at him as if he had just grown a second head, he clarified further. "I said _irrationally_."

"What do you mean?" Riven asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion and curiosity. Had it been anyone other than Helia who had said that, Riven would had been throwing obscenities at them and questioning their sanity, but Helia wasn't like most people. The two of them had a complex relationship, there was no denying that. They both came from two completely different walks of life and so they viewed the world differently, but oddly enough they had formed a firm friendship that looked past those differences.

Riven was by nature an instigator, but Helia had the soul of a pacifist so he would never physically fight someone to prove a point and he was also an educated and diplomatic young man who wouldn't engage himself in a verbal argument unless it had a certain level of intelligence behind it which meant that if Riven was going to get any kind of a fight out of his roommate, he had to step up to his level and play by his rules. Because of his pacifist ideals, Helia was never really a challenge to Riven in combat like Sky and Brandon were, so Riven felt no obligation to view Helia as any kind of rival and their debates had sharpened his mind and kept altering his opinion on topics when he saw the other side of the argument. It was an interesting form of fighting that Riven had come to really enjoy and as a by product he had developed a certain level of respect for the pacifist he had mock only months before. Helia's influence on Riven wasn't always obvious, but out of all their friends it was always Helia who could always calm the mood teen down the quickest and he was the only one who didn't let Riven dodge questions he didn't want to answer.

"You use violence and aggression as a shield to keep people from getting close to you," Helia explained calmly. "You might be pissed off that Jared was trying to crack onto Musa behind your back, but you're not going to attack him over it because you don't like him enough to do that and because it gives you exactly what you want; yet another obstacle between you and Musa."

"I don't want another obstacle between me and Musa!" Riven snapped, glaring up at his roommate.

"If that's true then why haven't you asked her out yet?" Helia shot back calmly. "I know I haven't known the two of you as long as the others, but from what I've come to understand, you and Musa could have been dating months ago if you had stopped pushing people away."

"Hate to burst your bubble there, Paintbrushes, but months ago I was spelled and dating Darcy," Riven pointed out, getting slowly to his feet.

"You didn't need a spell to hook you up with someone other than Musa," Helia said, causing Riven to look up sharply. "As I'm sure you found out this afternoon."

"Sky told you about that?" Riven asked softly, sounding more ashamed than angry.

"Who do you think set me out here?" Helia answered Riven's question with one of his own. "Even though you're a jerk to them, Sky Brandon and Timmy still value themselves as your friend and you might not be aware of this, but they hate the fact that you're still distancing yourself from them."

"I'm not distancing myself," Riven muttered, brushing the dirt of the back of his jeans. He had honestly tried this year to be slightly less difficult than he had been in the past few years. He had bit his tongue and didn't let himself be baited by the petty little arguments he and Brandon often had in the past. He had stopped targeting Timmy just for entertainments sake. And he had tried to dial down his temper that his rivalry with Sky always brought out. Sure, he had slipped up every now and then, but he was trying. Logically, it was the right thing to do, wasn't it? His mind told him so, but there was also a feeling in the gut that told him otherwise.

And Helia was about to give it a voice.

"You're keeping them are arms length still and you know it," Helia put bluntly. "And I'm guess that it's all because you still feel guilty about the way you treated them last year and for some reason you feel like you need to go through penance or something like that. It's why you haven't gone to Doc to get something done about your leg and it's why you're so reluctant to let them in again. You wonna prolong suffering and you figure that by keeping a distance, you're actually doing what's best for your friend. And you're wrong by the way. You're an ass, but your still their friend and they want to be there to help you if you'd just let them and if you have any doubts about that then you should have been there to see the look is Sky's eyes when he had to ask me – someone who's practically a stranger to your group – to go out and talk some sense into a guy that he would gladly put his life in danger for. Can you not get how upsetting that must be for them? In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the reason why Brandon's so cold to me; I'm doing what they should be able to do with you."

Riven glared at Helia in silence for a long time, wanting more than anything to call Helia a liar, but the truth of the matter was that he was right. Riven did want to prolong his suffering and he believed that his friends would do better if they didn't have him dragging him down, so he had tried to keep his distance from them. He had made an unexpected friend in Helia, but the pacifist had been spared the vindictive way he had acted last year so he didn't make Riven feel as guilty as the others did. It would be better for all of them if his squad just burnt their bridges with him and be done with it, but Riven couldn't deny that he hoped they never would. He knew what it felt like to be abandoned and he didn't want to go through that again.

"What do I do?" Riven asked Helia pathetically, hating how helpless he sounded.

"Well right now you're coming with me to Doc's office so he can have a look at your foot and maybe do something about your leg," Helia ordered. "As for you and the others; you can start by no longer trying to avoid them. The rest you gotta figure out on your own. And as for Musa . . . You're on your own with that one, man."

"Unless she's already shacked up with Jared," Riven mumbled as he started hobbling towards the infirmary. Helia didn't offer to help him and if he did Riven would had refused it anyway.

"I doubt it. Jared's actually out on a date with some junior right now," Helia told him causally and for some reason that made Riven feel lighter.

* * *

One of the great advantages of living in a magical realm was that their medical practices were incredibly advanced, so while a broken foot might take weeks to heal in non-magical realms, Doc assured Riven that his foot would be fine in just a matter of days provided he took the medicine he prescribed for him. The issue with Riven's leg was going to take more time researching, but the students of Red Fountain had complete faith in their physician to heal all their broken bones and cuts and Riven didn't expect this time to be any different.

Loaded up on pain medication that made him feel a wonderful kind of loopy, Riven hobbled down the corridor after Helia towards their dorm. Neither of them had any thing important to say to one another, so they walk in silence. That was one thing Riven really liked about Helia: he didn't feel the need to talk just of the sake of it like some of the others – particularly Brandon – did. Helia didn't even speak when he suddenly paused in front of an open door. Through his drug inflicted haze, Riven noticed his friends change in pace and glanced up at him with a raised eye brow that Helia never saw. His attention was focused on something inside the room that Riven eventually realised was the junior common room. Wordlessly, Helia walked through the open door and after a roll of his eyes Riven followed.

The lights had been switched off so the room was lit only by the glow of the TV which held the attention of the handful of students that were sitting in front of it. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, Riven realised that Sky, Brandon and Timmy were all there along with Bourne, W and Bishop who all looked rather bored as a massive explosion occurred on the TV.

"What cha watching?" Helia asked, his eyes on the screen as the movies heroine – dressed in impractical heels and a top that she was all but popping out of – struggled to load a gun which would have a strong enough kick back to hurl on her ass if she ever tried to fire it.

"Fatal Crisis Three," Bishop answered, not looking away from the TV, but from his place lounging on a couch not far from him, Sky's blue eyes glance from the movie over to where Helia was standing and when he saw that Riven was with him, he quickly dropped his gaze to the floor.

"Any good?" Helia asked, totally unaware of the tension that was rolling off of the prince at that present moment.

"It's not bad," Bishop shrugged. "The amount of mistakes they have in it is kinda entertaining. Interest you?"

Helia _hmm_ed as if he was seriously considering it before answering, "Nope. I think I'm gonna pass. Night guys," Helia waved before turning to head for the door, pausing only to glance at Riven. "Coming?"

Riven's violet eyes flicked over to Sky, who was still staring at the floor. "Nah, I think I'll stay."

"Uh-hmm," Helia nodded and then left without a backwards glance. With a casualness that was completely feigned, Riven moved around to the couch that Sky was stilling on alone, his long legs stretched out onto the empty side of it.

"Move your feet," Riven ordered gruffly and Sky quickly complied without argument, allowing Riven to sink down next to him. The movie really wasn't that engaging, but Riven had his mind elsewhere anyway. He could sense without looking that Sky was tense on the couch next to him and he knew instinctively that the prince was no doubt watching him out of the corner of his eyes. Faking interests in the movie, Riven watch the screen for several long minutes before suddenly glancing over at Sky. The second his violet eyes locked on Sky's blue ones, the prince instantly averted his gaze. He was still upset over their argument that afternoon, but after allowing himself a moment to collect himself, Sky lifted his eyes and met Riven's gaze and managed to hold it this time.

It really wasn't much of an apology, but both of them knew it was all they were going to get. Sky was still pissed that Riven would let himself get manipulated by Darcy so easily and Riven wasn't about to take back all those awful things he said to Sky, but neither one of them wanted to discuss what had happened any further and they were willing to just ignore it and go back to being friends again. There were a lot of things that remained unsaid and Sky had a feeling that it would always be like that. Riven may have changed from the bitter, vindictive teen they had first met in freshmen year as a result of his friendship with the others, but there would always be some expectations that he would never meet.

But – even with all his flaws – Sky was grateful for Riven's friendship, and when he gave Riven a small smile to which the burgundy haired teen replied with a smirk of his own, Sky knew that Riven felt the same way.

* * *

_It was so hard to write that chapter without using swear words, but it kinda gives an insight into the complex relationship Riven has with Helia and Sky. _

_TBC.  
_


	17. Exchange Students

_My shifts at work are finally slowing down after Christmas so I have time to focus on my editing – yuk – but also yay because it means I'm getting closer to the episodes where they're in the Resort Realm which I had heaps of fun writing. And then after that we finally get to confront Lord Darkar. It's kinda annoying that the main villain doesn't make an appearance until the very last chapter. Think about it, no one besides Layla and the pixies have Lord Darkar in the series so far. The rest are left fearing a shadow. _

_But I guess will all have to wait till Chapter Twenty-Six for Lord Darkar's special guest appearance._

_And speaking of special guest appearances, one of my old favourites is coming back for this chapter. Yay!_

_

* * *

_**_C_hapter Seventeen – Exchange Students **

"We've got a problem," Sky announced, entering the juniors common room. Brandon was watching Fuel TV while Helia sat not far away with all his attention focused on the notebook he was writing in. Timmy and Riven were both sitting at one of the tables finishing off their homework. Or to put it more correctly, Riven was stealing Timmy's answers.

"What do you mean?" Brandon asked, hitting the mute button.

"Ms. Faragonda wants the girls to prepare for the up coming battle with Lord Darkar since he'll inevitably come after Bloom, and she says that part of preparing for battle is by knowing your enemy."

"Knowing your enemy," Timmy repeated before nodding in agreement. "That makes sense, but how are they going to do that?"

"By sending the Winx Club to Cloud Tower on exchange," Sky said gravely. Silence filled the room as the prince's news sunk in and once again it was Riven who found his voice first.

"What?! You've gotta be kidding me!" Riven exclaimed in pure outrage. "They'll be eaten alive in that place! What is that old bat thinking?! She's completely senile! Honestly, sending them to Cloud Tower?! We may as well line them up against the wall and shoot them now! It'll be quicker and – "

"You've made your point," Helia interrupted calmly. Riven shot his roommate a filthy look but he did stop ranting.

"Er, so what are we going to do about the girls," Timmy asked, once again shocked as he had been over the last few months that Riven actually listen to Helia.

"Maybe we can ask Saladin to send us on exchange too so we can look after them," Brandon thought out loud. He and Stella may be going through a rough patch, but he couldn't let her be thrown to the wolves like that. Plus, the others member of the Winx Club were his friends too. He wasn't going to let them suffer just because Stella was a spoiled brat.

"Dude, how are we going to go on exchange to an all girls school?" Sky asked, sinking into one of the arm chairs.

"Then we'll go as body guards."

"I don't think Ms. Faragonda or Saladin would allow that to happen," Timmy said. "I assume that Miss Griffin agreed to take the girls in as a good will gesture, and sending body guards along just might insult her sense of hospitality."

"So what does that mean? We can't do anything to help them because of politics?" Sky groaned. He hated politics and he was born into a position where he _had_ to deal with them.

"Well, do we really have to do anything?" Helia questioned in his soft voice. "Those girls are more then capable of taking care of themselves and who's to say that the witches will be a problem? When the girls from Cloud Tower were invited to Red Fountain for the unveiling of the new campus and the concert we had a little while ago, they all seemed civil enough."

"Yeah, that's because they were on our turf, but when you enter their territory it's a whole different ball game," Riven explained. Out of the five of them, Riven had the most experience when it came to dealing with witches so they all listened to what he had to say on the matter.

"So you reckon that the girls are going to be targeted if they go to Cloud Tower?" Sky asked.

"Oh gods yes," Riven answered without hesitation. "Since the Trix are no long there they'll be spared any major form of abuse. I can't think of anyone else who might be a major threat, but at the same time you've got an entire student body who are not going to miss an opportunity to mess with a bunch of uppity pixies without stepping out their door."

"So, they're doomed then," Timmy concluded sadly.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Oh come on you guys. They're sending them to a high school, not a war zone," Sky reminded everyone. "Sure, they're going to live with a bunch of girls that naturally despise fairies, but even if they are witches they're still only high school girls, so there's got to be a way we can sway them."

Everyone was silent for a moment while they tried to find an answer to this impossible riddle and then Riven's violet eyes sparked with the light of an idea. "I think you might be onto something, Blondie. What day is it?"

Try as he may, Brandon could see no connection between what Sky had said and what day of the week it was. "What?"

"It's Sunday," Helia answered. Riven smirked wickedly before he wordlessly got up and left the common room. The other boys all looked at each other cluelessly before getting up and following him.

"What are you up too?" Sky asked as soon as they caught up to Riven in the junior dorm hallway.

"You said we needed to find a way to convince the Cloud Tower witches to leave the Jinx Club alone," Riven recapped. "So, basically what we need is an inside man."

Brandon turned the thought over and then nodded. "Alright, but what does that have to do with that day it is?"

"Because I have the unfortunate displeasure of knowing my friends habits too well," Riven answered, reaching to dorm room he was looking. "Lex!" the burgundy haired specialist shouted, banging his fist on the door. When he failed to get a response, Riven dug into his pocket and pulled out a piece of metal wire and proceeded to pick the lock in record time. Opening the door, Riven sauntered into the room casually as if he had been invited, but when his friends saw what was happening inside the room, they all flushed in embarrassment. Riven, however, remained completely unfazed on the surface. "Dominique, I've got a proposition for you."

Without any traces of embarrassment, the witch sat up on the hips of the Red Fountain boy she was straddling and looked over her shoulder to regard the group of boys that had suddenly appeared in the doorway. The make-out session had thankfully not proceeded too far when Riven had barged in, so the witch's tight fitting dark top had not been removed, but the boys couldn't tell if the same could be said about her pants due to the fact that the witch normally wore shorts that could easily be mistaken for underwear. Her violet hair and dyed burgundy fringe was slightly dishevelled, but her sea grey eyes were completely calm as she looked at each of the boys in turn.

Lex, however, was far from impressed.

"Riven!" the little student spat from his place under his girlfriend. "What the hell? Piss off! This isn't a – "

"Oh shut up Lex," Riven interrupted. "I just wonna ask Dom something."

"Hmm, would I have a threesome with Lex and Riven?" Dominique asked herself in such a way that it was hard to tell whether she was being sarcastic or not. The witch slide off her boyfriend and sat on the edge of the bed to ponder the proposition she assumed Riven was going to offer her. "Well I don't see why not. The numbers are definitely in my favour. But what I don't understand is why you brought an audience. This isn't a spectator sport, Riv."

Riven gave her an amused grin while silently trying to still the waves of nausea that churned through him. A threesome with another guy? That's not how it worked. But he needed something out of this witch so he knew he had to flatter her. "As tempting as that may be it's not the reason I'm here."

"Oh, that's right. You're still stuck on Handle Bars," Dominique sighed. "Pity."

"Handle Bars?" Timmy repeated.

"Musa," Riven explained quickly. "The Cloud Tower witches have nicknames for virtually every fairy at Alfea."

Sky's eyes widened in shock. "They renamed an entire student body? That's horrible."

"Oh don't worry, we've renamed most of Red Fountain too," Dominique told him, thinking that he had been insulted that he had been left out. The witch then grinned wickedly at Riven. "Isn't that right, Shocky?"

"Screw you, woman," Riven spat. He knew that he was supposed to be asking a favour of this witch, but he really hated that name.

"Shocky?" Timmy repeated.

"Yeah," Dominique said as if it was obvious. "Because his hair looks like he's been an electric shock patient."

Sky instantly burst into howls of laughter.

"I will kill you, man!" Riven threatened the prince who only laughed harder.

"You really have nicknames for everyone at Alfea and Red Fountain?" Brandon asked, amazed at the unity at Cloud Tower. Something on that scale took a lot of effort and he was impressed with the harmony that seemed to exist between the witches.

"Pretty much, Bang Boy," Dominique answered with a sly wink. "Poet Man," she said, pointing at Helia and then she moved her finger onto Timmy. "Charlie Horse."

"Charlie Horse?" Timmy repeated.

"Yeah, I can't remember where that one came from either," Dominique confessed before moving onto Sky. "And of course Goldilocks."

"Oh, that's original," Sky pouted, somewhat disappointed by the amount of effort that went into picking his nickname.

"It's not just because of you hair, Blondie," Dominique assured him with a wicked little smile. "But also because you're not sure which porridge you want to stir."

"Which porridge I want to stir? What?"

Dominique chucked maliciously before glancing at Riven. "He is so a virgin, huh?"

"Leave him alone," Riven said, trying not to grin too widely while Sky flushed deep crimson.

"And they call me Sexy Lexy," Lex said proudly.

"No we don't. We call you Marbles," Dominique said firmly.

"Marbles?" Timmy repeated.

"What are you a parrot?" Dominique asked. "Seriously, I don't think you've said something that hasn't already been said the entire time you've been here."

"Why Marbles?" Brandon had to ask. He couldn't think of anything that might connect Lex to the little glass balls. Maybe it was ironic, since Lex usually acted like he didn't have any marbles to begin with.

"Because he's small and pocket sized," Dominique said fondly.

"And cause he's as sharp as one," Riven muttered.

A puzzled expression which was normally saved for lab class when they have to solve an equation crossed Lex's face. "But marbles are round. They don't have any edges so they're not sharp at all."

"Oh how very foolish of me," Riven said with a completely straight face. "Thank you for pointing out my error."

"Anytime," Lex grinned.

Dominique let out a frustrated sigh. "You're lucky you're so cute."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Now, why are you here?" Dominique asked, getting the conversation back on track. With the calm, composed way she was talking to them, the boys got the feeling that they were talking to a business woman, not a teenage girl who was possibly minus her pants.

"Tomorrow Cloud Towers getting a group of exchange students," Riven informed her, and her eyebrows shot upwards.

"Really? Who?"

"The Jinx Club and that witch, Mirta."

Dominique's jaw dropped. "A-A-Are you serious? They're sending a bunch of fairies to CT with nothing more than that damned turncoat to back them up?" Dominique asked, her expression one of pure shock.

"Yup."

"Oh my darkness. This is the best news I've ever heard," Dominique breathed heavily. Leaping to his feet, she seized the front of Riven's shirt so that she could look him directly in the eye. "Is Bindo Blonde going?"

Bindo Blonde was a brand of light beer that had a rather sexist ad campaign which consisted of the slogan 'Nothing goes down like a Bindo Blonde' coupled with attractive blonde haired women in suggestive positions (1). Everyone could only assume that that nickname must belong to Stella. Riven nodded. "Yup. All of 'em are going so that they can understand dark magic better."

"Oh my god!" Dominique squealed, so excited that she couldn't help but kiss Riven on the cheek before pushing him away and started to pace at a speed that was slightly faster than a normal person should be able to move. In all the times the boys had know Dominique, they had only seen the cool, calm and callous side of the witch, but when she got excited, her mind and her tongue started to move as fast as her feet could and it wasn't long before she was talking so fast that the boys could barely follow what she was saying. "Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! This is like the best thing that has happened to Cloud Tower! It's like all our birthdays come at once! This even bests the alignment of the Triad! Pixies coming to Cloud Tower? This is going to be like shooting fish in a barrel! I've gotta get back to Cloud Tower and tell everyone! Where are my pants? You know what, never mind. No one's going to be able to tell anyway. Okay, okay, okay. There is so much planning that needs to be done. Are they coming for the whole week or just Monday to Friday? You know what, don't answer that. As if we'd want them to stay for the weekend. Okay, so they're showing up tomorrow so let's work this out. They'll probably arrive at about eight thirty so they can have a few minutes with Miss Griffin before they go to class and they leave straight away at three on Friday if they have any sense. So from eight thirty am on Monday to three pm on Friday is one hundred and two hours and thirty minutes, which is six thousand one hundred and fifty minutes or three hundred and sixty-nine thousand seconds and we can't waste a single one (2)!"

"Whoa," Brandon gasped when Dominique finally had to stop talking so she could breathe. Even Stella didn't talk that fast.

"How did she work out how many minutes and seconds the exchange was going to take so quickly?" Timmy asked in awe.

"She's always been good at that type of maths," Lex shrugged from his place on his bed while his girlfriend continued to ignore him. "You should see how fast she can do those questions about 'if a train leaves point A at this time and is travelling this fast for this amount of distance, what time will it arrive at point B'. It's freaky."

"Lexy! I'll call you later. Oh and any dates we were supposed to have this week are cancelled," Dominique told him swiftly, gathering her powers and getting ready to teleport herself back to Cloud Tower so she could tell all her friends about this wonderful event which was about to take place. "See ya."

"Hold up Speedy, I ain't done with you yet," Riven stopped her.

"Speedy?" Dominique repeated, an obvious level of disgust in her voice. Witches were the ones who came up with horrible, degrading nicknames for others. They weren't supposed to receive similar nicknames themselves.

"Yeah," Riven grinned, no intimidated in the slightest. "You never heard my proposition."

Dominique glared at the Red Fountain student with an expression on her face that was somewhere between irritation and suspicion. Her sea grey eyes occasionally flicked to the faces of the other boys in his squad and when she started to put the pieces together, her expression changed to one of horror. "Oh no."

"Oh yes," Riven smirked. "We need someone on the inside to keep an eye on those pixies and try and sway the other witches to leave them alone."

"No! No! No! No! No! No! No! You can't do this to me!" Dominique shouted, looking like a child who had just been told that her birthday had been cancelled. "This is a once in a life time opportunity for me! I'm going to be a senior next year! I'm graduating soon! There is no way another fairy is going to want to go on exchange to Cloud Tower for years! I cannot pass this up!"

"Okay, fine. Don't worry about it," Riven said, suddenly switching his game up. "We were just trying to think of a witch who was influential enough to possibly sway student policy at a school like Cloud Tower, but if you don't want to do it, that's fine. We'll find someone else. You don't happen to have Calleigh's number on you, now do you?"

"Calleigh?" Dominique repeated in an insulted tone.

"Yeah, I always like that witch and if anyone can influence an entire student body, it would be her."

Moving quicker than human eye could follow, Dominique suddenly charged Riven and body slammed him against the wall with strength that didn't seem natural in a body so slight. The rows of books that lined the selves above Jared's desk crashed to the floor and papers flew into the air that had been churned up by her movements. Dominique's fingers dug into the front of Riven's shirt like claws and her lips were pulled back in a feral snarl. Slowly, the witch levitated herself upwards until her face was just above the taller boy's, glaring down at him and surrounding her body was a wicked, burgundy glow.

"Calleigh?" she said again, her voice dripping in venom. "You think _Calleigh_ is influential enough to protect those uppity pixies? That self-centred, calculating, promiscuous, little brat? You have got to be kidding me?!"

"Nice to know the witches of Cloud Tower think so highly of their classmates," Brandon muttered to Sky, who was still staring at the witch in shock.

"Well Calleigh is a bit of a skank," Lex informed them before flinching violently as a hex blasted the sheets next to him. Scrambling out of the danger zone, Lex stared up in horror at his girlfriend, who was still pointing her finger at the spot where the hex had hit.

"That's one of my best friends you're taking about," Dominique reminded him, earning several baffled looks from the other boys in the room who weren't used to dealing with witches. She had just said all those horrible things about her friend and yet the second someone else tried to trash her Dominique was instantly defensive. Well, that's a witch for you (3). "Next time, I won't miss."

"Okay," Lex nodded.

"Now," Dominique growled, returning her attention back to the boy she had pinned up against the wall. "You've already appealed to my sense of pride, but that's not going to be enough to get me to change from offensive to defensive when these fairies arrive on my door step, so what's your next move?"

"Well, naturally no one ever does anything without getting something in return," Riven told her.

"And what do I get exactly?" Dominique almost purred, dropping her face closer to Riven's.

"You get the five of us in your debt and you get to cash in on that whenever you want," Riven told her.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Huh. Intriguing," Dominique admitted, releasing her tight grip on his shirt. Levitating herself backwards, the witch floated across the room until she was sitting on Jared's chest of draws so she could ponder Riven's proposition. "You're clever, hero, I'll give you that."

"So, you're interested?" Riven asked, trying not to look too hopeful otherwise he knew Dominique would turn his offer down just to annoy him.

"Perhaps. I like you, Shocky, but I think I'd like you even more if you owed me a favour," Dominique informed him, her eyes still narrowed in thought. "Alright, I'm in. I'll convince the rest of the witches at Cloud Tower that we shouldn't even acknowledge the presence of those twerps in our school by attacking them, but in return, you guys owe me big."

"Sure thing" Sky grinned. He might not be able to go to Alfea to protect Bloom himself, but at least there was something he could do to help make her exchange at little easier.

His smile faded, however, when Dominique quickly added, "And there's a few terms that you have to agree with if you want my help."

"Naturally," Riven sighed. He was expecting this. "Okay. Let's hear 'em."

"Firstly, if any word of this deal gets out, it'll make me look like your lackey and no decent witch _ever_ lets herself become someone's little minion, it doesn't make a difference if the person they're taking orders from is someone high school boy or the Shadow Phoenix himself. So this stays between us, and if anyone from Red Fountain, or Cloud Tower or Alfea so much as suggests that this agreement was arranged, I get to castrate you. And don't think that's just a figure of speech. Last year we had to do a paper on the Snake Queen of Issaime, and I focused on the duties of the eunuchs that serve her so I have a basic idea of how the procedure occurs," Dominique informed them with a wicked smile.

"Oh god," Brandon flinched, his hands held protectively in front of his crotch.

"So, did I make my point clear?" Dominique asked, delighted in the way the boys were recoiling from her threat.

"Yes. No one will know," Riven assured her. "Is that all?"

"No. I want one of you to get in my pants."

"Wow. You witches really don't beat around the bush, do you?" Brandon asked in shock. One second she's was threatening to castrate them and the next she was sexually propositioning them? Witches were weird.

"I mean literally, not sexually, you idiot," Dominique growled with a roll of her eyes. Snapping her fingers, a pair of jeans magically appeared with a loud crack, folded in the air next to her. "I brought these jeans last month with I came to the shocking realisation that I own nothing that covers my legs. All I own are mini skirts and hot pants and not that I don't look great in them, but I need a bit of variety in my wardrobe. Of course, as soon as I brought them I realised exactly why I don't like buying jeans; they're only comfortable once they've been worn in. So, now, one of you boys has to do it for me."

"You're kidding, right?" Riven asked.

"No. I'm not."

"But none of us will be able to fit in something your size," Helia pointed out.

"That's sweet of you to say, but actually my legs are more muscular than that of an average girl so they'll still fit. Granted, they might be a bit short, but it's not like any of you have any fashion sense anyway. I mean, Poet Boy over here is wearing hemp. The best thing you guys could do would be to dress up in girls clothes. It can't be any worse than the clothes you're already wearing," Dominique told them, pulling out a crystal that she wore on a chain about her neck. The boys watched in dread as the crystal started to spin as Dominique willed it to direct her to the person who would best fit her jeans, and to Sky's utter dismay, it pointed at him. "Well, look at that. My hips are the same size as Goldilocks."

"Oh no! I'm not wearing girls jeans!" Sky refused.

"Do you want to help you're little girlfriend or not?" Dominique asked him, and when all his did was glare back at her, she knew she had won. With a cool flick of her wrist, Dominique sent the jeans flying towards the prince who angrily snatched them out of the air. "Then drag up. It's not gonna be that bad. I mean sure, they probably are going to be a bit tight in certain places, but now that you got some spray on pants all we need to do is get you a dark top, grease you're hair down until it covers most of your face and put some eyeliner on you and you can be a part of that new fashion trend (4)."

"I hate you."

"Oh, you're so sweet."

"So, is that it?" Riven asked her. "Are you in? Can we go now?"

"Well, that all depends on you, Shocky."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm going to ask you a question, and your answer better be right or else all deals are off," Dominique warned him. "Who has better legs; me or Handle Bars?"

"What?"

"Who has better legs; me or that pixie you're hooked on?"

"Are you serious?"

"Deadly," Dominique assured him, her sea grey eyes severe. "I know you're a leg man and I for one am very proud of mine, and I'm curious to know who you think has better legs. So come on, who is it? Me or Musa? And don't forget, you got a lot riding on this."

"Er . . ." Riven stammered, glancing at his friends as if they had any idea of what the right answer might be. It was a trick question, that was for sure. Dominique had said she had wanted an honest answer, but she was also a witch who would want him to say what she wanted to hear. Finally, Riven was forced to just bite the bullet and say the answer he hoped was the right one. "Musa."

With her expression unreadable, Dominique hopped off the dresser and walked calmly over until she stood directly in front of Riven. He tensed as she neared him, but he didn't dare step back from her advance.

"Good answer. I'm in," Dominique told him, but even before a look of relief could spread across anyone's faces, Dominique slammed her hands against Riven chest as if she was going to give him a hard shove and with a loud crack, she teleported him away. Sky, Brandon, Timmy and Helia all stared in shock at the space that Riven had occupied a moment ago and they all tensed when Dominique lifted her cold, sea grey eyes to regard the four of them. "Now get out or you'll all be receiving the same treatment."

* * *

Riven didn't get back from wherever Dominique had teleported him by dinner and he still wasn't back when everyone turned in for the night, nor was he at breakfast the next day. In fact, it was mid morning when he finally showed up again, marching into their classroom, interrupting Javelin's lecture and causing the rest of his class to stare at him in bewilderment. He was still wearing the civilian clothes he had been wearing when Dominique teleported him, but now they were damp and covered in mud. His hair was messed up and caked with flicks of mud and there were a few scratches on his bare arms.

"Riven, what are you doing?" Javelin asked calmly.

"This'll just take a second," Riven assured him in a flat tone of voice that indicated that he had had a tough night. Grabbing the newspaper Javelin had been reading when his class had entered off the teachers desk, Riven rolled it up and them promptly slammed it down on Helia's head.

"Hey! What the hell?" Helia snapped, rubbing his head where Riven had hit him.

"I hate nature and I'm taking it out on you, hippy," Riven informed his friend with a snarl. No one had any idea what he was going on about, save for one person.

"You end up in the Black Mud Swamp in the middle of those meat-eating plants, huh?" Lex asked him cheerfully.

"Uh-huh," Riven answered with a yawn. He didn't get any sleep last night.

"Yeah, she's done that to me before too," Lex told him. "Another good one she does is she teleports you to the bottom of Lake Crysalous and she buries your feet partly in the ground so you have to dig yourself out before you drown. It's really cool."

"You should probably see a counsellor about that," Helia suggested.

"Huh?"

"Riven, go get yourself cleaned up," Javelin ordered. "You're dripping muddy water all over my floor."

"I'm going," Riven said, heading for the door and Javelin resumed his lesson as if nothing had happened.

"It's a good thing Dominique's on our side," Brandon muttered to Sky as Javelin talked. "If this is the way she treats her friends, I'd hate to be her enemy."

* * *

_(1) There actually is an ad like that in Australia – or at least there was until censors pulled it off the air. It was for a beer called Bondi Blonde and all I did for this fic was switch the O and the I in Bondi around, but that was their actual slogan. Hilarious _

_(2) I'm no math-wiz, but me and my calculator are fairly certain that all that hours, minutes and numbers thing is right, provided of course that the Realm of Magix has twenty-four hours in its day _

_(3) It's not just a witch thing, more a teenage girl thing. My ex didn't get it but it makes perfect sense to me how I could be friends with someone I couldn't stand and bitched constantly about _

_(4) I so don't like the spray on jeans that was going around. I think they look awful on guys. Girls jeans are meant to be worn by girls, no exceptions _

_TBC._


	18. The Heart of Cloud Tower

_Okay, this is a nice short little chapter, but with the Resort Realm and the confrontation with Lord Darkar looming it's probably gonna be the last short one you read so enjoy it while you can._

_

* * *

_**Chapter Eighteen – Heart of Cloud Tower **

"How serious do you think Jacob's getting with that nurse?" Brandon asked, stretching his legs out as he sunned himself on the grass after class one afternoon. If there was one thing he really liked about Red Fountain's new campus, it was the gardens on the upper level. The grass, the trees, the open walkways and the sound of the water running off the four points of the school gave off a calming, Zen-like feel and it was nice to walk straight out of class and lounge in such an environment. Brandon had a feeling that this relaxing area was going to come in a lot of handy during his senior year and his final exams.

"Brandon, for the last time; she's not going to leave Jacob for you so quit hoping for it," Sky told his squire, lying down on the grass with his arms folded behind the back of his head.

"Oh, I've given up on that. Hell, I'd date Jacob if it meant extra dessert. I'm just worried that they're gonna get engaged and then Jacob's gonna leave us."

Timmy looked up from his PHA that he was sorting out some program in horror. "He can't leave. Who will make our crème brûlée?"

"They can't get married," Sky said sternly as if he had some say in the matter. "They've only been dating for what? A year? Isn't that moving a little fast? And Jacob can't leave Red Fountain. It's his job."

"It's not his only source of income. He owns a couple of restaurants in town and he was saying ages ago how he really wanted to get back into being that whole head chef thing," Timmy reminded them. "I guess we can't expect him to stay here forever."

"He doesn't have too. He's just gotta stay till we graduate," Brandon told his friends as he shifted down lower onto the ground so that he was resting back on his elbows. "Then and only then he can do whatever he wants."

"What do you think the food at Cloud Tower is like?" Sky asked, looking over in the direction of the school for witches.

"I dunno. They probably serve eye of newt, brain of dog and barbequed crickets," Brandon speculated before grinning wickedly. "Actually, it'd pretty funny to see them eat that kind of stuff. It'd be like those disgusting food challenged that have on those reality TV shows."

"I wouldn't do too well in those challenges," Timmy admitted.

"Oh, I would."

"Yeah, I believe that."

"I'm worried about the girls," Sky commented, his eyes still on Cloud Tower. There was an odd light coming for the school – well, odder than usual – and it was making Sky nervous. Even though he knew that had Dominique in there keeping an eye (reluctantly) on the girls, he still had a bad feeling eating away at his guts and it was enough to make want to jump on his levi bike and drive over there, school politics be damned.

"They're fine," Riven grunted as he sat down along side the three of them. Helia was also with him, but he sat down more gracefully than his roommate who just flopped down.

"How do know?"

"Because I friggin' do, shit head now quit your bitchin'," Riven snarled with sudden heat that caused everyone to back up.

"Riven's in a bit of a mood today," Helia informed them all calmly with a delighted little smile that caused Riven to swear colourfully at him, but Helia only grinned back as if he was utterly enjoying his roommates particularly foul temperament. As Riven ranted off a few more choice curses at Helia, he was simultaneously digging through the pockets of his jeans looking for something and it wasn't until he was telling Helia of some places where he could store his paintbrushes that he found what he was searching for.

"Are you still smoking?" Sky demanded sharply, but he regretted asking it as soon as Riven shifted his blazing violet eyes from Helia to him.

"No, this isn't smoking. This is frickin' bullshit! I may as well be smoking air with the amount of nicotine that in this shit! They're bloody lights for crying out loud! Only Alfea freshmen smoke this shit! Helia, you're friend Vincent's a cock spank and I should have never agreed to this," Riven ranted, confusing everyone, but Helia remained completely unfazed.

"You've never met Vincent so how would you know?" Helia asked calmly, digging through his book bag for something.

"I don't give a shit! This was a stupid idea and it's not . . ." Riven trailed off as Helia found what he was looking through his bag for and pulled out a familiar red and white box so that Riven's vision completely tunnelled. It was his packet of Smaug Red (1) cigarettes which he had been pinning for since the day Helia had decided he was going to help Riven quit smoking. The art student had replaced Riven's usual brand of smokes with a weaker, inferior bands, gradually working their way down to brands that Riven believed would never satisfy his nicotine fix, so when Helia had pulled out his Smaug Red's it was as if a former lover that he was still lusting after had returned to him. "Gimme."

"What's the magic word?" Helia taunted, holding the box out of Riven's reach.

"Now!"

"Hm, close enough," Helia shrugged, tossing the box at his roommate who greedily accepted it.

"I thought you were quitting," Brandon asked, trying not to sound too much like a parent chilling chiding a child, but Riven was too focused on trying to fumble the box open to even hear the question.

"He is," Helia answered for him.

"So then why did you just give him his cigarettes?"

Helia only smiled as Riven placed a cigarette between his lips and sparked his lighter. Lifting the flame to the end of the cigarette, lit it and breathed deep . . .

. . . and instantly stared to choke.

"What the hell?" Riven gasped, his eye watering and his chest was burning. He hadn't felt like that because of a cigarette since he first took up the habit over a year ago. A foul sickness gripped him and he suddenly had a feeling like he was going to be physically ill.

"You've been smoking cigarettes with a much lower nicotine content than the Smaug Red's," Helia explained calmly as Riven continued to suffer. "I think Smaug's have something like 3.5 milligrams while the other was only .05, so that's a bit of a jump (2)."

"Are you enjoying this or something?" Riven snarled before falling back into another coughing fit.

"Immensely," Helia grinned widely. "I was kind of hoping you'd throw up."

"Oh shut up!" Riven snapped stubbing out the almost untouched cigarette and flicking it away. Still fighting the urge to be sick, Riven regarded the red and white box in his hand and then threw it at Helia's head. In one drag, the pacifist had had completely ruined Riven's taste for cigarettes. "I hate you."

"I know," Helia said smugly, putting the cigarettes back in his bag. He was sure he could find someone who wanted them. He was just about to return to taunting his roommate when there was a sudden shift in the air that made every student in Red Fountain freeze. It was a difficult feeling to describe, but it reached right down into their souls and left all who felt very uneasy.

Something powerful had entered Red Fountain, and it was not happy.

"What the . . ?" Brandon gasped, but no one could reply to him because suddenly things started to teleport to various places around the school. A bench that was situated under the shade of a tree suddenly vanished and was replaced with a can machine that normally stood just outside the doors to the cafeteria. School desks magically appeared outside, as did the beds of a few unlucky students, but it wasn't just inanimate objects that were being moved. Students suddenly found themselves being translocated to places where others had been standing seconds before, confusing and startling heroes everywhere.

"Do you think Lord Darkar's behind this?" Timmy asked, as he watched a sophomore get teleported six foot in the air only to crash back down again.

"He's already got our piece of the Codex, so I doubt it," Sky pointed out.

"Okay, then what the hell is _that_?!" Brandon panicked slightly as a glowing burgundy and violet mark appeared beneath where they were sitting. It was a large circle with a hexagon inside it along with several lines and symbols to make it resemble a transmutation circle used by alchemists, but one major difference with this mark had north, south and all the other directional points lining the outside of the circle like a compass. Before any of them could scrambled to their feet, the mark flared and all of them experienced a strong pulling sensation like someone suddenly yanking them backwards, and it was so strong that is actually slammed them all onto their backs. Blinking, the five boys tried to orientate themselves, but that was hard when they realised that they had somehow suddenly ended up inside someone's dorm room and looming over them was a very angry looking Dominique.

"You've got some nerve!" the witch growled in a deep, menacing voice. The boys had seen the cold, callous side of her nature and they had also seen her at her most excited, but they had never seen her angry before, and she was _furious_. Her lips were pulled back in an animalistic like snarl and her sea-grey eyes were blazing and had a reddish cast to them. Her skin was white hot in anger and even her burgundy dyed fridge seemed to be burning brighter. But no matter how terrifying and intimidating her physical stance was, it was nothing compared to the way her powers lashed out of her, acting in ways that they weren't entirely sure she was even conscious of. They all assumed that they had ended up in Lex's and Jared's room, but it was kind of hard to tell since ever piece of furniture, clothing, or any other random object in the room such as posters that had been stuck on that walls was being teleported to various places in the room again and again, moving so fast that it actually made the boys feel slightly motion sick.

In fact the only things not moving in the room was the five boys and the witch themselves, and of course Lex who was standing very still with wide eyes and his mouth shut as he watched his girlfriend shift his belongs around in an endless series.

"When the hell were you going to tell us about this Lord Darkar creep?! Huh?!" Dominique shouted, her face completely livid. The anger and power radiating off her was causing her hair to flying around her as if it was caught in a strong breeze and it was enough to keep the universes future heroes frozen in fear. "When were you dickless bastards and your Alfea skanks going to fill me and the rest of the witches in on this supposed end of the universe type scenario?! Did you even bother to factor us into you're plans to counter this threat?! God dammit! I am sick to death of this god dammed heroes and fairies show you've got going on! There are other people in the world, ass wipes! Hope you've realized that! Why is it that you have to be some uppity pixie with perky breast and your pussy on display before someone takes you seriously?! Huh?! _Witches are a part of this world too!!_"

"Look, Dom, I – " Riven started uncertainly, but the witch didn't want to hear a word of it.

"_Silence!!!" _Dominique screamed, making everyone flinch and cower backwards. The teleporting objects suddenly stopped, and whether it was a conscious decision by Dominique or just a coincidence, but everything was returned to its usual location. "Do you have any idea what kind of a week I've been having? First, you lot give me this damn task of looking after your slutty girlfriends when I would much rather be exposing them to a realmful of pain and torment, but then no other than our dear friends Icy, Darcy and Stormy show up and mess with the very foundations of Cloud Tower! So one of you better get me some alcohol or I swear to god I'm coming good on that threat to castrate you!"

"I'll just go get some for you, shall I?" Riven offered gently so as not to provoke her further. He chose to ignore the disappointed look Sky shot him.

"Wine, if you've got it. I want to get drunk quickly (3)."

"Red or white?"

"Both. Hold still. I'll get you there quicker." With a snapped of her fingers, Riven vanished with a loud crack, no doubt teleported to his room in search of alcohol. Sighing heavily, Dominique collapsed down onto Lex's bed. Her initial rage had dulled slightly to the point where she looked more tired than angry, and it was only then that the boys were daring enough to address her.

"The Trix came to Cloud Tower?" Sky asked, his chest constricting at the thought of Bloom in trouble.

"Yeah. I thought CT had seen the last of them after the Witch Invasion, but there they were, roaming the halls and messing with witches younger than them for the fun of it," Dominique informed them in a drained sounding voice. Wordlessly, Lex went over and sat on the bed behind her so she could lean against him. "It felt like I was in my freshmen year again."

"Are the girls okay?" Timmy asked her and he tried not to look intimidated when her sea-grey eyes flicked up from looking at her feet to lock on his.

"Which girls? Your fairies or the witches of Cloud Tower?"

"Both of them," Timmy assured her, though he was simply asking about the fairies. However, he believed that this answer would be better for his health.

"I'm touched by your concern," Dominique purred wickedly, hinting that she saw straight through him, but she made no other effort to pick a fight with him. "Both are fine. Cloud Tower is pulling itself back together after be violated by the Trix . . . _again_ . . . and your little fairies would be back at Alfea by now. And yes, they're fine, just a bit bitchy due to a catfight spell that was put on them."

"A catfight spell? I thought you were supposed to trying and stop that kind of thing happening," Brandon snapped, but instantly regretted opening his mouth with Dominique glared at him with blazing eyes.

"I was supposed to sway the student body, you prick, which I did flawlessly by the way, but there is shit all I can do against teachers."

"A teacher spelled them?" Helia repeated in shock.

"Yeah, do not underestimate the level of hatred that exists between fairies and witches, Poet Man," Dominique told him in a deadly serious voice. Her attention shifted off of him, however, when the door opened and Riven returned with his fingers snaked around the neck of three bottles. "It's about frickin' time. God, what was keeping you?"

"Well excuse me for not possessing super speed," Riven growled, passing her two of the bottles before holding up the third. "I found a bottle of Fawks's homebrew. I figured we should drink it soon since I don't like having something that combustible sitting under my bed."

"Fair enough," Dominique nodded, cracking open the bottle of white wine and raising it to her lips. The boys watched half in shock and half in awe as the witch gulped the alcohol, downing a third of the bottle in one go. Slouching back against her boyfriend, Dominique held up the bottle and grinned lazily at it. "It's gonna be a fun night."

"So did the Trix end up getting Cloud Tower's piece of the Codex?" Sky asked as Dominique took another large swig.

"Yeah. I didn't even know we had a Codex, and now it's gone. What exactly does it do anyway?" Dominique slurred as she gulped down another mouthful of wine. The alcohol was clearly a calming agent for her and it was only then that the boys felt it was safe to hold a conservation with her.

"It's a key to the Realm of Realix where the Ultimate Power has been sealed away, and now Lord Darkar has two of the four pieces," Brandon explained.

"And a Lord Darkar is?"

"The Shadow Phoenix that lives in Shadow Haunt."

"Hn. Sounds ominous," Dominique commented dryly, tossing away the now empty bottle of white wine and moving onto the red. Any chance for anyone to respond to that was cut off by a soft knock at the door which opened to revile Headmaster Saladin with Professor Codatorta standing right behind him. All of the boys – particularly Lex – tensed since they were breaking Red Fountain rules by have alcohol and a girl in the dorm room, but Dominique – who was more than a little tipsy by this stage – simply grinned widely and held up her bottle of wine in cheers. "Hey guys."

"So, this is the source of the teleportation we've been experiencing this afternoon," Saladin smiled softly at the witch as he calmly entered the room.

Codatorta, however, was not so welcoming. "You do realise, young lady, that we don't allow alcohol on campus."

"You do realize, old man, that Cloud Tower has those same rules, but I spent this afternoon trapped in a wall so I think I deserve this," Dominique snapped back, taking a defiant swing of the red wine while glaring at the Combat Instructor who barely suppressed a growl.

"Oh, I think we can let it slide this one time. After all, she has had a rough few days," Saladin reminded Codatorta gently, before turning back to the witch. "I heard you had a bit of drama over at Cloud Tower."

"If you call fairy intruders, a Trix attack that turns our own school against us and the theft of a power relic that no one bothered to tell us about a bit of drama, then yeah."

"The decision to inform you of Codex was left up to your headmistress."

"Oh save it," Dominique snapped back, proving that she wasn't as drunk as she had let on when the headmaster had entered the room. "I already know how this is going to end up. For better or worse, it's gonna be Red Fountain and Alfea verses this Darkar creep at the final battle. Miss. Griffin might be there, but she'll be the only witch there besides the Trix. God, I feel like a second rate character in some TV show. There are three points of power, Saladin, and one of these days you're gonna wish that you paid more attention to us instead of focusing all your time on those damn pixies. We might not be as optimistic and perky as Alfea, but Cloud Tower has its own unique skills to offer."

"I would never take the witches of Cloud Tower for granted," Saladin assured her, but she didn't look convinced.

"_Hn_. Whatever," Dominique grunted, swallowing another mouthful of wine. "So what are our chances against Darkar?"

Saladin sighed heavily. "It's hard to tell. He's half way to obtaining the Ultimate Power and although Alfea and Pixie Village's pieces of the Codex remain hidden, I can't help but get the feeling that Lord Darkar has something up his sleeve. Something we haven't foreseen. But I know that if he ever gets his hands on the Ultimate Power, the universe will fall."

Everyone remained silent in the wake of Saladin's dark prediction, until Dominique _hmm_ed as she regarded her almost empty bottle of red. "Well then, we're gonna need more alcohol."

* * *

_(1) Smaug is the red dragon from the book The Hobbit (which should be out in cinemas in 2011! Yay!) and I think he'd be a good logo for a brand of cigarettes _

_(2) I personally have never smoked, but I'm friends with lots of people who do. While the idea of smoking has never appealed to me (mostly because they make you reek) I always love listening to peoples theories on the best way to quit smoking. I've heard a few such as always wait forty-five minutes and then if you still want one then you deserve to light up or you limit the amount of time you can smoke eg. never smoke under a roof. But the one I went with was the one where you smoke your way down till you get used to cigarettes that have a low nicotine content and then suddenly jump back up to really strong ones so the taste will make you sick. Buggered if I know if it actually work but I'm sadistic enough to enjoy putting Riven through it _

_(3) I love wine for that exact reason. Whenever I got out I like to get a nice glass of white (but never chardonnay. Hate that stuff) because it's so much cheaper than spirits and I'm not that big a fan of beer _

_I'm with Dominique about how one sided this three points of power bull shit is. The poor witches never get to have any fun. You've either got to be a Trix and have your asses kicked by a bunch of fairies three years younger than you or you're a helpless spectator who never does anything asides from standing by and letting your school get overrun_

_TBC. _


	19. Shadows In Bloom

_This chapter's actually rather Timmy-centred, which is something I don't do often enough. _

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Nineteen – Shadows in Bloom**

Sky, Brandon and Timmy's dorm room was very still and quiet despite the fact that all its occupants were present. That was, of course, until Brandon – who was fed up with studying and frustrated by personal problems – snapped and threw the text book he was reading with unnecessary force at the wall, making people on both side of it jump.

"I am never going to remember any of this crud!" Brandon raged uncharacteristically.

"Brandon," Sky started gently so as not to aggravated his friend further. He had used this tone plenty of times before – though almost exclusively with Riven – so it felt odd to be using it on his best friend and countryman. "Just relax. They're just final exams. Nothing to get stressed over."

"Whatever," Brandon grumbled moodily, lying back on his bed and covering his eyes with his arm. Sky and Timmy exchanged a concerned look, but any chance of getting their normally cheerful and optimistic friend to open up was ruined when the door to their room snapped open to revile the two boys who resided on the other side of the wall that Brandon had just thrown his book at.

"What the hell's going on in here?" Riven demanded curtly enough for Helia to think he deserved a sharp elbow to the ribs.

"Nothin'," Brandon snapped back just as curtly, only no one dared to jab him in the ribs.

"Okay," Riven said, dropping it for now. With a loud sigh, Riven leaned himself up against the door jam and got himself comfortable. "Have you heard anything about the end of year examinations? You know, the missions?"

"All junior Red Fountain students are all sent out on field missions for their final examinations," Sky said.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. I go to school here too. I know how it works. I was asking if you if you had heard what the missions are going to be."

"Well, I heard Doc got in a few vaccines for diseases that exist in tropical regions, so I'm guessing a few squads are going to be sent on missions in rainforest or swamp environments, and the Q-Master was pulling out some of the snow gear that's usually used in the freshmen snow trip so we might have a few arctic missions crop up too," Timmy told them.

"So it's either humid, muggy rainforest and swamps or freezing our butts off?" Sky thought out loud, not sounding too thrilled about either option.

"You are such a spoiled prince," Riven muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"I don't care what mission we get. I just want this school year to be over already," Brandon grumbled from his place still sprawled on his bed. "I'm sick of exams, I'm sick of worrying about mission and I'm sick of just sitting around waiting for Lord Darkar to make a move. Why can't our mission be to go to Shadow Haunt and take that creep out before he tries to steal the last two pieces of the Codex?"

"Because it's an examination, not a suicide attempt," Sky pointed out bluntly. "Besides, he's not going to get his hands on the last two pieces of the Codex. One's hidden in Pixie Village where only the pixies, Layla, Ms. F, Saladin and Griffin know the location of and the Winx Club won't let him anywhere near Alfea's piece."

"Yeah, because they did such a fantastic job stopping the Trix from taking Cloud Tower's piece," Brandon growled sarcastically.

"Now Brandon, that's not fair."

"Whatever," Brandon mumbled, rolling onto his stomach and picking up another text book.

"They did their best to stop them but – "

"Dude, just drop it. I'm not in the mood."

"But you can't blame – "

"Sky, seriously, I'm trying to study."

* * *

Brandon's sour mood continued with seemingly no end in sight, and when coupled with the usual stress of exams and the mind numbing act of studying, it led to a very unpleasant environment to live in. Mentally, emotionally and physically tired, Timmy found himself distancing himself from his friend and spending more time alone studying or just getting away from it all. Timmy had never been as enthusiastic about levi biking as some of the others were, but recently it was coming a common occurrence for him to just pull on his helmet and ride out his stress. He normally never had any real destination, but rather let the roads of Magix take him where ever they wanted him to go.

And today, he somehow found himself at the gates of Alfea.

Leaving his helmet with his bike at the gate, Timmy strolled causally through the grounds with the idea of spending sometime with Tecna. Their friendship had been rather strained this year and he was hoping that they could work past it. Tecna, however, was making it extremely difficult for him by ignoring the instant messages and emails he sent her and generally avoiding him whenever she could. Timmy couldn't deny that he was hurt by her cold shoulder, but he was hopeful that they could fix it. If only he could find her.

Timidly walking up to a short haired fairy that he knew was in Tecna's class – in fact, he was pretty sure that she room with Layla – Timmy tried to get her attention so he could ask if she knew where Tecna was, but the fairy was more interested in the story she was telling her friend than even acknowledging him. "So I'm IM that guy I met in Magix last weekend, and get this – "

"Excuse me girls," Timmy interrupted delicately, but he saw the fairy's eyes flash in annoyance. "You don't know where Tecna is, now do ya?"

"Yeah hi. Right in the middle of a conversation here," Layla's roommate pointed out rudely instead of just answering him. "Oh, but maybe your lack in social skills is why Tecna dumped you."

"Huh?" Timmy said dumbly, shifting his glasses. He could have pointed out that he and Tecna weren't technically dating so it was impossible for her to dump him, even through that hadn't even happened, but he was too shocked to even focus his mind to come up with such a response. He had never actually spoken to this fairy before so he had no idea where she got off being so rude to him, and he also never really pictured himself as being interesting enough for girls to gossip about. Embarrassed, Timmy turned and walked away from the girls who had broken out into peals of laughter at his humiliation. "Lack of social skills? I said excuse me, didn't I?"

In his opinion, he wasn't the one who needed to improve his social skills. Sure, he was shyer than Brandon and Sky were and he didn't get much entertainment out of stirring up conflict like Riven did, but that didn't mean that he was a social misfit. He always made sure he minded his manners and believe that if you couldn't say something nice, then you shouldn't say anything at all. That was just the way his parents had raised him. Also, with two sisters it wasn't like he could get a word in anyway.

Timmy was still somewhere between embarrassment and confusion when he managed to spot Tecna walking with Flora. Swallowing hard, Timmy tried to stop the nervousness in his stomach as he ran over to the two Winx Club members.

"Hey. What a coincidence," Timmy greeted lamely. Flora smiled warmly at him, but Tecna didn't look too thrilled with his presence, causing Timmy to lose his nerve and he fell back on his usual plan whenever Tecna made him feel uncomfortable; he talked about computers. "I mean, I was just doing some IT work for Faragonda and I just happened – "

"That's nice," Tecna cut him off, no more interested about talking to Timmy about computers than she might have discussing the latest fashion trends with Stella. Without a backwards glance, Tecna marched past them in an effort to get as much distance between her and Timmy as possible. Flora gave Timmy a quick apologetic and sympathetic smile before she quickly followed after her friend and Timmy let them go without chase.

"Oh boy," he sighed. "I'm no good at this."

He had only half been lying about helping Ms. Faragonda with some IT work, and it only took him ten minutes to fix the computer issue that had been annoying her for most of the school year. She probably could have gotten one of the fairies from Zenrith to fix it for her, but she had asked Timmy since the program that had been giving her grief had come from is home realm of Windox, so he had been able to interpret it like it was his native language since it pretty much was. When he was finished, Timmy roamed the halls of Alfea in the hopes of running into Tecna again, but whether it was from her avoiding him or just because their paths never crossed, Timmy couldn't find her. Not that he'd have a clue what he'd say to her if he did.

"Maybe Bloom's got some advice," Timmy thought out loud. He was pretty good friends with all the Winx Club girls, but it was probably Bloom that he felt most comfortable around, and that included Tecna at this particular moment in time.

Timmy found Bloom in her dorm room, accompanied only by her bonded pixie Lockette. Despite the fact that there was no obvious danger, Bloom had transformed into her winx form and she seemed to be surrounded by a pillar of black smoke. Timmy figured that she must have been studying for her exams like everyone at Red Fountain were. Lucky for them, none of the boys had to study magic.

"Hey Bloom," Timmy greeted cheerfully. "I was wondering if you had a second for a guy in need of some advice?"

"Sure Tim," Bloom grinned, but for some reason her smile looked more like a wild animal baring its fangs than its usual friendliness. Her voice also seemed to lack her usual pep. Instead, her voice was lower and hinted at a tone Timmy had only ever heard students from Cloud Tower use. "Come on in. It's about Tecna, right?"

"That's right. How'd you know?" Timmy asked and for some reason that question made Bloom chuckle.

"Oh Tim, you're pretty smart about most things," Bloom noted, twirling her finger around to stir up smoke. "But when it comes to Tecna, you don't know which way is up."

"Oh!" Timmy gasped. Before he knew it, the black smoke surrounded his body and Timmy was suddenly thrust into the air where he was left levitating upside-down. Timmy was shocked enough at suddenly having his feet higher than his head, but what was more shocking was that Bloom found it so entertaining that she cackled as if she was one of the Trix Sisters.

"Do you know what I mean?" Bloom asked tauntingly.

"Well, I'm not sure," Timmy confessed. If this was the way Bloom taught, there was no way he was ever going to ask her to be a study-buddy with him. "But . . . er . . . can I please have my shoes on the ground again?"

"Sure Tim, whatever you want. Here you go," Bloom said, flicking her wrist again. It suddenly became clear to Timmy that he hadn't been clear enough with his request when Bloom spelled his shoes onto his hands so that they were closer to the ground like he asked, but he was still hanging upside-down with a painful amount of blood rushing to his head. "Is that better?"

"What is this?" Timmy asked, looking stupidly at his shoed feet. He had only known Bloom just over a year and a half, but he was pretty sure that he had a clear idea of Bloom's personality, and this wasn't normal. Sky had told him of a time last year when he and Bloom had snuck into Cloud Tower and read a book that the Trix had planted which told them that Bloom was a witch. Timmy had actually laughed out loud when Sky had told him about that, but if Bloom had been acting the way she was right now at that time last year, Timmy may not have found it so unbelievable.

"Why are you acting like this Bloom?" Lockette asked, her tiny body and voice trembling. "Put him down."

"Oh, you mean drop him just like Tecna did?" Bloom laughed callously. As he hung there like some slaughtered animal left to bleed, it occurred to Timmy that there was something very wrong. Not just in the way Bloom was acting, but also in the way that she looked. It had been bugging him since he had entered the room, and it finally occurred to him what it was; her eyes had changed. Bloom normally had blue eyes that were both pale, though not chilling like ice blue eyes, and soft and deep, though without darkness, or at least that was how Sky had once described them. But now they were pale with an element of darkness in them, and they certainly weren't blue. They were a wicked golden colour and her pupils were thin slits like that of a cat.

Something was seriously wrong.

Timmy's only ally that that moment, Lockette, flew over to him to offer what little help she had for him. "Hang in there Timmy."

"I don't think I have much of a choice," Timmy pointed out pathetically.

"Hey Timmy, lets go find Tecna," Bloom suggested, heading for the door and spelling Timmy along with her.

"Whoa!" Timmy gasped as he was suddenly hurled backwards and collided with the door on the way out. The wind was knocked out of him and he was developing a headache from being upside-down for such a long amount of time, but without the help of magic there was nothing he could do

But even those with magic were helpless to stop Bloom. "Are you okay?" Lockette asked as the travelled down corridor in search of Tecna or where ever Bloom wanted to take them.

"Whoa!" Timmy gasped again as he watched the floor move quickly beneath him. He was starting to feel really sick.

"Quit your whining," Bloom ordered harshly, not slowing in her pace.

"Put me down," Timmy ordered, but Bloom simply ignored him. Timmy knew that the only way he was going to be able to get out of this situation was if someone else intervened. Unfortunately, they had not come across anyone yet. "Somebody help!"

Timmy didn't know if they had heard him calling or if it was just a matter of coincidence, but a moment latter, help came in the form of Musa and Layla walking around a corner.

"Musa!" Timmy called, his voice a combination of urgency and relief.

"Timmy?" Musa gasped, shock at what she was seeing. Even with all the random and unexpected things that came with being a teenager growing up in a realm full of magic, there was no way Musa could have prepared herself for the astonishment that followed coming across having your normally pleasant friend tormenting another one. The shock left Musa stupid and she said the first thing that entered her mind. "Are you levitating?"

"Are you trying to impress Tecna?" Layla asked, unable to even consider the possibility that Bloom would behave this maliciously. The grin on Bloom's face, however, was proof enough that it was more than just a possibility; it was a reality.

"Yeah," Bloom smirked, her cat-like eyes glowing. "He's kind upset because, well, she's been treating him like dirt."

"Bloom," Lockette gasped as she watched Bloom conjure up a spell to torment Timmy further.

"Oh no. Now what?" Timmy groaned as he felt himself moving again. Before he could even realise it, Timmy found himself getting dumped head first into one of the large pot plants that lined the corridors of Alfea with only his legs sticking out the top.

"Timmy!" he heard Musa, Layla and Lockette exclaim, or at least he thought that was what they said. He had potting mix covering his ears, and everything they said sounded distant and muffled.

"Somebody get me out of here!" Timmy cried, trying not to gag on the dirt that ended up in his mouth. He really wished he could say that this was the first time he had ended up in a situation like this, but unfortunately one of his older sisters had a strong interest in archaeological history and had master several sand and soil manipulation spells which she had often used as a child to bury her little brother in the garden whenever she felt like it.

Timmy had no idea how long he stayed stuck like that, but just when he felt like he was on the verge of suffocating, he felt himself being lifted carefully by the ankles by some magical force out of the pot. Coughing, Timmy struggled to grasp his surroundings, but he could tell that he was being gently lowered to the ground and as soon as he was able to remove his filthy glasses and blinked the dirt out of his eyes, he could see the blurry form of a man standing over him. And even without his glasses, he knew who it was.

"Are you alright?" Professor Avalon asked, looking the teenager over carefully.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Timmy assured him, cleaning his glasses and slipping them back on his face. Suddenly, he could see the paladin a lot clearer. "Where's Bloom?"

"She's sitting over there," Avalon answered, pointing to the fairly that was slumped against the wall. She had transformed out of her winx mode and she appeared to be unconscious. "As soon as I got here I had to hit her with an energy absorption spell. It managed to drain her of her power to the point where we could help her and try to figure out what happened to make her act this way. And also allow us the chance to get you out of that pot plant."

"Yeah, thanks," Timmy mumbled, utterly embarrassed. "Will she be okay?"

"She'll be fine. The energy absorption spell acts just like a sugar low. Provided Bloom takes it easy when she first wakes up, she'll be back to her usual strength within the hour," Avalon assured him before returning his attention back to treating Timmy. "Now, stay seated until you fell better. Don't try standing too soon. Miss Stella?"

"Yes Professor?" Stella, the only other fairy that Timmy could see, responded.

"Would you please take care of Timmy while I try and wake Bloom up?"

"You got it," Stella saluted, walking over to sit by Timmy while Avalon moved over to Bloom. "You okay, Timmy?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Timmy said again, rubbing the top of his head. A large amount of soil slipped out of his hair. Looking down at himself, Timmy saw that his upper half was absolutely filthy and he was sure that his face wasn't fairing much better. "I could do with a shower, though."

"I think you'll have to go back to Red Fountain for that," Stella grinned before spelling up a moist facial wipe. "But hold still. Let's see if we can't get you a little bit clean up before you go."

"Where did Musa and Layla go?" Timmy asked as Stella scrubbed his face like she was his mother.

"They went to go track down Tecna and Flora. They think it's best for all of us to watch Bloom for a little bit, just to make sure she doesn't slip into that crazed state again."

"That sounds like a good idea."

Timmy was silent as Stella finished cleaning him up. He had decided that as soon as he was able to stand, he was going to make a break for it. He had already made a fool of himself in front of Tecna once today. He wasn't about to do it again.

"There. You're done," Stella told him, sitting back to observe her handy work. "You still need to have a shower so you can wash you hair, but at least now your face doesn't look like you've tried to find out what it's like to be a carrot."

"Thanks Stella. Would you be able to give me a hand getting up?"

"Sure," Stella said, gripping him by the arm. With Stella's help, Timmy managed to get back on his feet. He still had a headache, but he figured that would fade once his blood started circulating normally again. Timmy started brushing down his clothes just as Bloom started to come around.

"Wha . . . W-What happened?" Bloom asked, clutching her head. She did look very weak, but Avalon had assured them that she would be back to her full strength shortly.

"Bloom, you need to tell me; do you remember anything about what just happened?" Avalon asked gently, his steel blue eyes serious and probing.

"What are you talking about? What happened?" Bloom asked, looking about her, utterly confused. "And what am I doing out here? I was just in my dorm. Timmy? When did you get here?"

"Alright Bloom, I need you to listen to me," Avalon said and then he slowly explained to her what had just happened.

"I did what?" Bloom asked as soon as he was finished. She had paled slightly as her professor had been talking, and when she had heard about what she had done to Timmy she looked as if she was going to throw up. "I feel so embarrassed. I don't remember any of that. I tried to see if my powers were stronger cause of the regression, but that's the last thing I remember."

"Sounds like you have a case of a rare magical virus known as _Fargmistingson_," Avalon told her. "You might have picked it up from those trogs in the Under Realm. I'll need to research the correct healing spell."

"Well, I'm going back to Red Fountain," Timmy told everyone. He still wasn't feeling one hundred percent, but he knew that Musa and Layla would be returning soon with Tecna and Flora, and he really didn't want to run into Tecna right now. "I hope you feel better Bloom . . . for everybody's sake."

"Hey, if I said anything too harsh, I'm really sorry," Bloom apologised, and Timmy knew that she meant it.

"I know you didn't mean it," he told her, but he knew she was going to feel guilty about it for the next few days. The best thing he could do was keep positive and hope that she realised he was okay with it. Grinning, Timmy rubbed his hair again and this time several leaves fell out along with a small amount of soil. "See you later."

"See you later Timmy," everyone called after him, and with that, Timmy fled Alfea with the knowledge that he couldn't have humiliated himself any better that day if he planned it.

* * *

"Timmy, what happened to you?" Sky asked, his blue eyes looking at his friend with deep concern. He had noticed a change in Timmy over the last few months, but it was starting to become really obvious lately. He had been very quiet recently, which really wasn't that unusual for Timmy, but Sky had noticed that his reserved nature now seemed to be more withdrawn if anything, which wasn't normal.

"Oh, nothing that hasn't happened to me before," Timmy assured him, and if he knew his sister at all, it probably wasn't going to be the last time it happened either. He was aware of the fact that Sky was still looking at him, but he averted the princes blue eyes by removing his glasses and pulling his shirt up over his head, all the while trying to ignore the soil that came spilling out of some hidden fold in his clothing. He had been finding countless stashes of soil just like it all afternoon, so he was eager to hit the showers and clean himself off.

Unlike Alfea and Cloud Tower who all had private bathrooms attached to their dorms, Red Fountain had always supplied its students with communal showers, making shower time an unexpected social event. As freshmen's, many had originally found it to be rather awkward and embarrassing but they quickly became desensitised to it the point where it was commonplace to see students walking to and from the shower block wearing nothing but a towel (1).

In the old fortress, the shower block was nothing more that a bunch of shower heads sticking out of a wall, but with the new campus, they had upgraded the block so that they now had individual stalls with walls that reached from about mid chest height down to the floor. The teachers said it was so that the students would be allowed a little privacy, but everyone knew it really had to do with Doc complaining to Saladin about the amount of concussions he had to treat each year when students slipped over and cracked their heads on the titles while playing soap soccer.

By the time Sky and Timmy stripped off and made it to the showers the rest of the squad had reserved for them, their friends were already well into their cleaning routine, particularly Brandon who had put a ridiculous amount of shampoo into his brunette hair and was working up a lather so that it would stand up on end.

"Look Riv, I'm you," Brandon announced as soon as his hair was completely vertical and styled into a large spike as Riven usually wore his.

"Yeah, ya funny," Riven said sarcastically before sticking his head under the running water so that his hair fell directly in front of his face. "Look, now I'm you."

"You should keep it that way," Brandon advised, rinsing the shampoo out of his hair. "It's better. We can't see ya face."

"Is that why you keep your hair that way?"

"No. I do it to tease. The world wants more, but I just won't give it to them," Brandon grinned, rinsing the suds out of his hair. Riven rolled his eyes and then went about simply ignoring the squire. His hair was now an incredibly dark shade of burgundy and had fallen straight down by his cheeks, changing his appearance entirely.

"So, did I hear right? Did Alfea lose its piece of the Codex?" Helia asked, rinsing the conditioner out of his long dark hair which with the weight of the water made it all the more longer.

"Alfea lost their Codex?" Riven repeated, snapping his head up. "How?"

"Did the Trix show up or something?" Brandon asked, slicking his fringe out of his eyes and leaving his entire face exposed for a change. "Seriously, I've never seen this Darkar guy. He's always getting the witches to do his leg work."

"The Trix didn't get it," Sky answered simply, sticking his head under the stream of water. He had gotten a magic message off Bloom that simply read; _Icy spelled me. Darkar has Alfea's Codex. I gave it to him_. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her yet, but he planned to give her a call as soon as he was showered and had given her time to have dinner and go through her own nightly routine.

"What happen?" Helia pressed lightly.

"Icy spelled Bloom when they were at Cloud Tower, and she turned to Darkness and gave up Alfea's piece of the Codex," Sky said as quickly as he could and tried to ignore the shocked expression on Brandon, Riven and Helia's face. Timmy was oddly quiet and kept his eyes downcast.

"You're kidding!" Riven gasped, his violet eyes wide.

"Bloom? Darkness?" Brandon stuttered. "No way!"

"My god," Helia whispered softly. "Is she alright?"

"I dunno. I haven't talked to her yet," Sky answered. The conversation kind of died at that point as it dawn on everyone the gravity of the situation that was now facing them. Lord Darkar now had three out of four pieces of the Codex, and he had achieved that by manipulating the strongest fairy at Alfea.

* * *

"Bloom, are you sure you're okay?" Sky asked again, his phone held up to his ear. He was alone in his dorm so he was able to get all protective over his girlfriend without any of his friends tormenting him about it which he was very thankful for. Bloom had been pretty depressed throughout the call, but that was no surprise given everything that had happened that day. Bloom had dedicated herself all year to trying to protect the Codex from Lord Darkar, so to suddenly find herself as the one who handed it over to him was more than she could bare.

"I'm fine," Bloom said, even though she sounded anything but. "I just can't believe that I gave Alfea's piece of the Codex to Lord Darkar like that."

"You didn't mean to Bloom. You were spelled."

"That doesn't change the fact that Lord Darkar is now one piece of the Codex away from getting the Ultimate Power," Bloom snapped with sudden heat that vanished just as quickly as it appeared. "I'm sorry, Sky. I didn't mean to snap at you like that."

"I know you didn't. You've had a rough day. Do you want me to go so you can try and get some sleep?"

"No. I like listening to your voice. It makes me feel better," Bloom admitted. "And after the day I had, I need all the cheering up I can get."

"Fair enough," Sky laughed. "Anything I can do to help."

"Is Timmy still mad at me?"

"Timmy? No Bloom. He was never mad at you, and even if he was, he's not the kind of guy who holds grudges," Sky assured her. He had managed to drag out of Timmy what had happened at Alfea earlier that day, but even then Sky's understanding of the details were sketchy at best. All he knew was that at some point, Bloom had turned on Timmy and he had ended up with a pot plant being dumped on him or something like that. "Timmy's pretty much the rock of our squad. There's always been fights – me against Riven, Brandon against Riven, me and Brandon against Riven – and Timmy's our referee, or peace keeper if you will. It's not in his nature to hold anything against anyone."

"I know, but Timmy been having a pretty hard couple of months recently."

"He has?" Sky blinked. He had always thought he was pretty good at being able to read his friends, so the very idea that something was going on with Timmy that he hadn't noticed was something that the prince had never seen coming.

"Yeah, you know with all that stuff that happening between him and Tecna, or not happening would probably be a better wording of it."

"Him and Tecna?" Sky repeated, feeling incredibly stupid. "Is it not working out between them or something? I always thought they got along really well."

"They do . . . as friends. They're just having a bit of trouble making that transition to 'more than friends' is all and Tecna's getting a little impatient about it all."

"Oh, okay," Sky said, trying not to sound too shocked by it all. How the hell did he miss that? Timmy was having girl issues and no one had noticed. Sky suddenly felt so guilty that he felt nauseous when he thought about all those weeks when Timmy had sat around and listened to him bitch about Avalon and whether or not Bloom had a crush on him, and now that the roles had been reversed and Timmy had needed the support there was none to be found. Brandon was still suck in his pool of misery thanks to whatever was happening with him and Stella, Riven was always off with Helia these days and Sky had been caught up in looking out and supporting Bloom that he had neglected one of his best friends. Looking back on everything, Sky realised that Timmy hadn't been as confident in his studies had he had been the pervious two years. He was still acing all his theory work, but the practical side of his studies wasn't as good as it had been in the past, like he had lost his confidence or something like that, and Sky couldn't help but notice that his grades had started to slip ever since the day the Trix stole Red Fountain's piece of the Codex and Timmy had froze up in front of Icy. Darcy's non aggression spell had been on him at the time, but Sky could easily picture Timmy over analysing the situation afterwards and placing the blame on himself. Just the thought that Timmy was thinking he was somehow less fit to be a student at Red Fountain and for Sky to have missed that was enough to make the prince want to be physically ill. "Look Bloom, I better let you go. You've got classes tomorrow and you've had a pretty full on day. You need some rest."

"Yeah, you're probably right. I'll call you sometime tomorrow?"

"Yeah sure. Night Bloom."

"Night."

* * *

Red Fountain library was rather dark and ominous, but the lamp that Timmy was studying under was bright so Sky managed to find him easily. Late night study sessions weren't unusual at this time of year, and there were a few other students huddled under their own lamps as they made an attempt to cram that little bit more information into the heads before the examination period started.

"Hey man. How's it going?" Sky asked casually, leaning calmly up against the table Timmy was sitting at. Timmy glanced up at the prince from the thick text book he was taking notes from for a second before turning back to his studying.

"Yeah, not bad," Timmy answered automatically, flipping a page over and scanning his eyes over the text. "Though I'm starting to think Brandon might be right about us never being able to remember all this stuff them expect us to memorise."

"Afraid Marcus might steal your place at the top of the class?"

"_Hn_. He wishes," Timmy smirked, jotting down another note that might come in use to him in the future.

Sky grinned, knowing full well that Marcus was trying to beat Timmy in this year's examination just as he had tried in ever other exam in the past. It wasn't so much the insane amount of hours Marcus put in studying each year that was amusing, but more so the way the rat face boy sulked for weeks afterwards that entertained the prince and the rest of his friends. Timmy of course was completely humble about the whole thing and publicly didn't approve of the delight others took out of Marcus's failure, but Sky knew he secretly enjoyed it just as much as the others, if not more so. Sky tried to keep the smile in his voice as he asked again, "So seriously, how you going?"

Timmy looked up from his studies once again, but this time he held Sky's gaze for longer than a few seconds. "I'm fine," Timmy assured him and there was no evidence in his face that suggested he wasn't telling the truth.

"You sure?"

"Yeah," Timmy nodded before awkwardly turning back to the text. Nothing seemed to make Timmy feel more uncomfortable that being the centre of a persons attention.

"Just making sure," Sky smile warmly, clasping Timmy on the shoulder briefly as he pushed himself off the table to leave, but before he left he added, "You're a good hero, Timmy, and you deserve to be here just as much as the rest of us."

"Um, okay?" Timmy replied uncomfortably, trying to sound like he had no idea what Sky was talking about.

"See ya man," Sky smiled one last time before leaving his friend to study in peace. Timmy watched him go before sighing heavily and returning his attention back to the text he was reading through.

* * *

_(1) Nothing like communal showers to make you feel more comfortable about forfeiting your sense of privacy _

_Next Chapter: The First Charmix. We're going to the Resort Realm people!_

_TBC._


	20. The First Charmix

_Okay, I think my sudden increase in my uploading of chapters over the last few days has more than made up for me dragging my feet over the holidays, but now that we're down to the business end of the season I can't promise that I'll be able to keep up this pace. I have a mammoth amount of text to get through just from the show alone so my editing – which sucks anyway – is probably going to slow down. But I had heaps of fun writing these chapters since we actually have some action happen instead of just sitting around dealing with drama, and I hope you have fun reading it. _

_So pack your bags kiddies, we're going to the Resort Realm!_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Twenty – The First Charmix**

"I can't believe you picked that as your topic for the assignment," Sky said sternly to Riven in the kind of tone that sounded like a parent scolding a naughty child.

"All the assignment description said was that we were supposed to come up with and organise a mission that would benefit society," Riven reminded the prince, not sounding worried about his choice of topic at all.

"And how do you think assassinating the Channel 7 Sunrise Morning crew will benefit society?"

Riven folded his arms across his chest and wore an annoyed expression on his face that people tend to wear when they have to explain the bleeding obvious. "Have you seen how infuriatingly annoying the host Koshi is?"

"He's got you there," Brandon told Sky. "Sunrise may have the best morning news program but it's agonising to watch since the hosts are just too over the top and fake."

"I agree, but does that really mean the Channel 7 studio should be infiltrated and have their morning crew slaughtered during the commercial break?" Timmy asked.

"Yes," Riven answered bluntly. "Besides, Brandon dared me to do it (1)."

"Don't you drag me into this," Brandon ordered.

"What? It's true."

"Did you know about this?" Sky asked, looking over at Helia who nodded calmly.

"Of course. I drew the pictures," Helia said.

"I really liked the one where you had Koshi's head on a spike. That was good," Brandon praised the art student, though his prince didn't look impressed. "Are they going to mark it?"

"Yes but they're confiscate all blue prints, notes and security combination's he snitched from the Channel 7 studio," Helia answered for Riven.

"Snitched?" Riven repeated in an insulted tone.

"I _know_ you didn't obtain the information for your assignment legally."

"I know but snitched makes it sound so childish."

"You lot!" a loud voice barked from behind them, and all five boys turned to Codatorta standing behind them with his hands on his hips. "Saladin wants to see you in his office. Now!"

"If this about the Sunrise thing, I had nothing to do with it," Brandon instantly assured him.

Codatorta raised one eyebrow. "What Sunrise thing?"

"Nothing."

"Just go."

* * *

"You wanted to see us sir?" Sky asked as the five students entered Saladin's office. He really hadn't been to Saladin's office since they got the new campus, so this was his first time seeing Saladin's renovated office. It was certainly more severe that the old one, but he had heard off Helia was that Saladin's private quarters more than made up for the coldness of his office with warm reds and grand gold furnishings.

"Yes," Saladin answered, rearranging some papers on his desk. "As I'm sure you're all aware, part of the junior examination includes field assignments and we've just received a special request from Ms. Faragonda regarding your squad mission."

"Faragonda?" Brandon repeated. Since when was the headmistress of another school – one for girls at that – involved with the plans for their examination? "Let me guess, this has something to do with the Winx Club and Lord Darkar?"

"Half right. Ms. Faragonda is concerned about the girls mental well being – Riven, don't say a word – and she thinks that they might not be able to face Lord Darkar and the Trix with their current fractured state. The rising pressure of their schooling, the theft of three of the four pieces of the Codex and the looming threat of Lord Darkar has lead to tension between the six girls which we simply cannot afford to have right now. Bloom is the only one who can stop Lord Darkar and she relies heavily on the unison of her friends. If we can't help them find that harmony again, then I am certain that Lord Darkar will obtain the Ultimate Power."

"And we come in where?" Timmy asked, a little confused to where they fit in with all this.

"Ms. Faragonda has arranged for the girls to be sent to Resort Realm for a week of skiing, camping and bonding to try and help the Winx Club relax and regroup, and of course they'll be needing protection."

"Oh no," Riven instantly objected. "Our field examination is to play babysitter for a bunch of teenagers? That is – "

"Riven, if you don't stop complaining right now I'll expel you," Saladin told him bluntly. Whether he was serious or not, Riven decided not to push it and kept his mouth shut, but his expression was still stormy. And although he couldn't say a word, the other boys few that he was still thinking along the same line as them.

"Sir, not to sound conceited or anything, but I don't think that body guarding utilizes all the skills we've learnt over the last three years and therefore wouldn't be a suitable assignment to be graded on," Sky said as diplomatically as he could.

"Prince Sky, may I remind you that many of our former Red Fountain students who graduated with higher grades than any of you have went on to use all the skills we taught them in the secret services of many important dignitaries, such as when the Captain of Eraklyon's Royal Guard, Sir Alcester, used a rescue and recovery technique he learnt in his sophomore year here to save your mother from an assassination attempt while she was six months pregnant with you," Saladin reminded him, shutting the prince up immediately.

"Alrighty then! We're going to the Resort Realm!" Brandon cheered, trying to sound enthusiastic about it.

"Excellent. Here are your mission specs including all the information you'll need on your itinerary, the budget you've been given and the task that you'll need to complete throughout the week," Saladin said, handing them a copy of the mission specs each. "Your individual responsibilities as well as your call signs are included."

"Oh you are kidding me?!" Riven broke his forced vow of silence when he saw his call sign name.

"What?" Brandon asked, looking over Riven's shoulder at his papers, and when he saw what was written there, he burst out laughing. "Shocky! Ha! That's hilarious!"

"I wouldn't laugh too soon, Bang Boy," Timmy AKA Charlie Horse said. "We've all got witch nicknames."

"Oh brilliant," Goldilocks AKA Sky groaned.

"There are only four people going," Timmy noted since he had been the only to look beyond the call signs and read through the other pages of the mission specs.

"Yes. Unfortunately Helia does not have enough hours in practical training for him to be sent on a field operation. He'll be staying here monitoring your progress on your tasks. You'll have to radio into him every night to give your reports and will be on stand by in case any incidents occur," Saladin explained. "Please keep in mind that this is not a social line."

"You hear that? No chit-chat," Brandon grinned at Riven. Rolling his violet eyes, Riven slammed his foot down hard on the squires toes making Brandon let out a high pitched whine from behind closed lips. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity for either of them to pick a fight any further in front of their headmaster.

"The Resort Realm will have places where you can pick up your supplies and all the equipment you'll need, so you'll just have to pack you're personal items and clothing. You have two hours to prepare before you're due at Alfea to pick the girls up. As usual, your mode of transport shall be your squad ship. Timmy will be the ships pilot," Saladin assigned.

"Why does Timmy always get to be pilot?" Brandon whinged, but he instantly regretted his question when Saladin shot him a stern looked.

"Because out of the three of you, he's got the cleanest flying record," Saladin reminded him. "Timmy didn't go joy riding and crash a ship in the Black Mud Swamp," Saladin looked at Riven. "He didn't hit the turbo jet while still in the hanger," referring to an incident with Sky in freshmen year. "And he didn't leave a jet hovering in mid-air outside until it ran out of fuel and dropped out of the sky."

"Okay, okay. But about that whole leaving a hovering jet thing, I was in the medical wing after Darcy attacked me and everyone was more focused on the Codex being stolen and Sky nearly being put in a hundred year sleep to notice it."

"I don't want to hear it, Brandon."

"Yes sir."

"And I'm sure I don't need to remind that this is an official mission for you boys, which means there is absolutely no faradisation between you and the mission objective," Saladin told them. "Any breaches of this rule will result in serious mark deductions and other penalties if the level of infringement calls for it. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir!" the boys said in unison, coming to attention sharply.

"Excellent. You're dismissed."

* * *

Two hours later, Sky, Brandon, Timmy and Riven were on their way to Alfea to pick up their mission objectives, and none of them seemed too thrilled by their situation.

"This is bullshit," Riven finally said what everyone was thinking.

"I'll say," Brandon agreed.

"I hate that damn no frat rule," Sky complained. "I've always hated it."

"Red Fountain is a school for Heroics and Bravery, not Holidays and Babysitting," Brandon whinged. "This is completely beneath us."

"Second that," Riven nodded. "And I bet the girls are going to bring along those annoying pixies of theirs."

"A week. A whole bloody week and we've got to keep three feet away from them at all times," Sky continued on, not really listening to what the others were saying. "That royally sucks."

"Why the hell would anyone want to go camping?" Timmy asked, catching everyone's attention. Timmy wasn't a person to complain about anything, so it was rather odd for him to join in on their bitching session. "I mean, I'm positive that my wireless internet won't get coverage there."

Riven laughed. "You're such a nerd, Timmy."

"I never pretended to be anything otherwise," Timmy said, trying not to look insulted.

"Don't worry Timster, I bet ya that by the end of the week, you'll be a regular jungle boy, swinging from tree to tree and beating your bare chest in a very manly way," Brandon teased with a wide grin on his face.

"Not likely, but then again, who knows how I'll react with the lack of internet," Timmy smirked before returning his attention back to the task of flying the ship. "We're coming up on Alfea now."

"We'll got help the girls with their luggage, or whatever," Brandon offered unenthusiastically as he and Sky got to their feet. Timmy was busy checking the ships monitor and Riven had pulled out a book which held his attention over his mission. Slowly, the two Eraklyains made their way to the ships hatch.

"Remember no socialising," Sky said when he saw the girls, but he wasn't sure if he was reminding Brandon or himself. "Hey girls!"

"Security is here!" Brandon announced.

"Brandon, I thought we had a conversation about muscle shirts," Stella said, a slight hint of venom in her voice. "They're over."

"If we leave the mission objective down an ice cavern, would they fail us?" Brandon muttered to Sky under his breath, shocking his prince. Sky was aware that Stella and Brandon weren't quite as perfect as they usually were, but he had never heard his friend speak that way about the princess before. Sky continued to watch his squire carefully as the Winx Club ran over and boarded the squad ship where it became obvious that it wasn't just Brandon that Sky had to worry about.

"Hi," Tecna greeted Timmy coyly when she saw him sitting at the main control panel.

"Hi!" Timmy responded enthusiastically, delighted that Tecna was finally talking to him again. Things had been very, very, _very_ awkward between them all year and maybe this trip would finally patch things up again. But the he remember that this was a mission, not a holiday. "Er, I can't socialise with you. I'm on duty"

Tecna – clearly offended – _huff_ed and turned away from him.

Musa entered next, but she paused when her navy eyes fell on one particular hero who had his feet propped rather inappropriately on the control panel in front of him and his eyes focused solely on the book in his hands. "Hey Riven."

Riven didn't need to look up to know who had addressed him, but he did anyway. "Musa, hey."

A small smile started to spread across Musa's face, but that quickly faulted when Riven looked back down at his book and continued his reading. "Hey."

Moving over to stand by Tecna, Musa shot her an irritated look to which Tecna nodded in agreement. In unison, they both said, "Boys."

Sky slapped his hand to his forehead and then dragged it down his face slowly to try and relieve some of the tension. This was going to be one long, long trip.

* * *

"I am so looking forward to this trip. It's going to be awesome!" Bloom cheered, throwing her hands up in the air. "This is just the thing we need to get our mind off of the Codex, the Trix and Lord Darkar."

"Have you ever been skiing before, Bloom?" Flora asked.

"Well we used to get a lot of snow in Gardenia during winter but nothing like what you get at a ski field," Bloom told them all. "Does the Resort Realm have good snow?"

"Powder," Brandon corrected.

"What?"

"Powder snow. That's what you want. Power. And yes, they do. It's also a lot warmer than the Realm of Frost where we went in freshmen year. The temperature there would drop below thirty degrees celiacus every night. Remember that guys?"

"I remember it being bloody cold when Codatorta dragged the two of us out of the pub that night," Riven recalled.

"Oh yeah," Brandon grinned at the memory.

"You were freshmen's. What were you doing in a pub?" Flora asked, a little shocked at the thought of the boys getting into that kind of trouble at that age. But once she thought about it a little longer, her shock faded slightly.

"Picking up lifty chicks," Brandon smiled widely, but it dropped when he noticed Stella was glaring at him. "I . . . Um . . . I'm gonna stop talking now."

"Good plan," Bloom giggled.

"We're entering the Resort Realms atmosphere . . . now," Timmy reported, and they all felt the familiar pull of gravity as the natural force of the planet started the drag them down. Timmy was indeed the best pilot out of the four of them, so he was able to keep the ship steady as they descended to the point where the only indication that they were descending was a slight vibration through the ship.

"Wow. Look at that landscape!" Chatta said, hovering over near the window.

"It's beautiful," Amore gushed.

"The Resort Realm has one of the most unique climates in the universe," Digit informed everyone. "The higher peaks are cold enough to enable snow all year round while the lower regions remain warm enough to allow comfortable camping climates."

"That's weird. I mean, having two totally opposite climates so close to one another," Bloom noted.

"Yeah, but they manage to make a fortune out of it," Musa told her.

"It doesn't hurt that everything here cost an arm and a leg," Layla added. "The price of lift tickets here are almost double what we charge in Tides."

"Yeah, but the teachers are paying for it," Musa reminded her with a grin.

"Oh no," Stella suddenly whined.

"What's up Stell?" Bloom asked.

"I forgot to bring my royal leave in conditioner and we're going skiing. Skiing is such a frizz fest," Stella informed them all, and not a single person could relate to her pain. "If only I could do a hair protection spell, but I can't."

"Are we ready to land?" Brandon asked Timmy. He really wasn't interested in listening to Stella's hair dramas today.

"I was, but there's something else flying out there. Check it out," Timmy suggested, double checking all the monitors. Brandon got to his feet and walked over so that he look over Timmy's shoulder. If there was something obstructing their landing path, then they would have to circle until it was clear which would put them behind on their schedule. Normally they wouldn't care, but they were being marked on time management so they were forced to keep an eye on the clock.

"It can't be another ship if it's not showing up on the radar," Brandon noted just as a massive winged monster from the wildlife preserve flew past their front window, making a few people jump. "There it is!

"Heads up!" Timmy warned, jerking the controls and avoiding the monster. Despite his warning, most of the teenagers weren't prepared for the sudden change in direction, causing a lot of them to scream and lose their balance. Even Brandon nearly ended up on the floor, but he managed to grab onto the control panel and hold himself up.

"Smooth," Riven muttered to Timmy, his sadistic side taking delight in how rattled the fairies and pixies got at something as minor as a slightly rocky ride.

"Sorry guys," Brandon apologised on behalf of Timmy who was focusing on steadying and landing the ship. "Is everybody okay?"

Everyone looked a little shaken and off balance, but there were no signs of any injuries which was fortunate. The boy's marks wouldn't have faired well if they bloodied the mission objective before they even arrived at the resort.

"That thing needs an air traffic etiquette lesson," Tune commented. "It so scared me."

"Bloom, are you alright?" Sky asked, placing a tender hand on her shoulder.

"Decorum!" Bloom reminded him sharply, shaking his hand off her. Sky knew she had a point, but that didn't mean he still didn't feel cut by her rejection. "That's the Red Fountain rules. You're on duty."

"Yeah, I know," Sky said, trying not to sound too insulted.

"Faragonda said you're being graded on this."

"Yeah," Sky grumbled, putting some distance between her and him.

"Listen Sky, I'm just trying to help," Bloom told him. "Hey, I'm not the one who came up with the rules."

"I must say I don't like these rules at all," Amore informed everyone. It was true that the no fraternisation rule was a massive drag, but everyone knew that there would have been absolutely no way the teachers would have let them go on this trip unsupervised if it wasn't in place. The teachers might not have been able to control the sexual actions of their students all the time, but they sure as hell wasn't about to give a bunch of hormone charge teenagers a week long opportunity to act on all their urges. They ran a school, not a fertility clinic.

"Get ready, we're approaching the villa," Brandon informed everyone.

"Oooh. I can't wait to see the villa," Lockette squealed.

"Is that it?" Chatta asked, pointing to the large lodge they were aiming for.

"I think so," Timmy told her. "It matches the address, but I didn't expect it to be so grand looking."

"It's Alfea's private lodge. Everything Alfea owns is grand," Stella reminded them as the ship came in for a landing.

Grand, however, might have been a slight under exaggerating description of the lodge. It was a massive three storied building made completely out of timber and stone. The lower level had a drying room for all your boots and ski clothing, another area to store all skis and snowboards when not in use along with a work bench with all the tools needed for waxing and sharpening edges, a cool room to store food and a spare room where a ping pong table had been set up. The middle level had the kitchen, the dinning room and a large lounge room complete with a large screen TV and an open face fire place. The upper levels had all the bed rooms, but there wasn't enough for everyone to have their own room so they had to double up. Stella went with Bloom, Musa roomed with Layla while Tecna and Flora paired up together. As for the boys, well they naturally split it so Sky and Brandon shared a room with Riven and Timmy in another.

"Have you checked out the size of those rooms?" Brandon asked, coming down the stairs into the lounge room where Sky and Timmy were setting up the radio station that they would use to report into Red Fountain every night. Riven was supervising them from his place sitting in one of the comfortable lounge chairs the villa had on offer with his feet on the coffee table. "They're huge!"

"They're not that big," Musa noted, entering the lounge room after she had finished scouting out the kitchen with Layla following after her.

"Compared to the room we had at the lodge we stayed at in freshmen year, they're massive," Timmy informed her calmly. "Our room was smaller than those ones and they expected to fit the four of us in it."

"You're kidding?" Layla flinched at the thought of the four boys sharing that close quarters with one another.

"No, but what did you expect from budget lodging?" Sky laughed. It wasn't as funny at the time what with the four of them living in each others pockets for a week, but when he looked back on it he saw what a really great memory it was. "What was the name of that lodge? Something possum?"

"Pigmy Possum," Timmy recalled. "They had all the rats, remember?"

"Yeah, they were fun," Riven grinned.

"Rats? _Eww!_" Stella squealed, hearing the conversation.

"They were native rats. If we killed them, the parks would fine us," Timmy pointed out, but that did little to change the girls' opinion of the idea of living with rats (2). Before any real debate could start up, however, Bloom came bounding down the stairs, a look of childlike delight on her face.

"Come on you guys! Let's go to the Galleria and pick up our ski gear so we can hit the slopes this afternoon!" Bloom cheered, bouncing on her toes. "C'mon! C'mon! C'mon!"

"Yeah okay. We're done here," Sky said, hitting the top of the radio. "Now I'm sure I don't need to tell you girls twice, but let's go shopping."

* * *

"Alright, now I'm starting to believe that this is actually an exam and not just some twisted joke of Saladin," Riven mumbled, his face expressionless and his violet eyes dull.

"What?" Timmy gasped, staring at Riven as if he had just grown a second head. "You're kidding?"

"Nope, 'cause this is really testing me," Riven spat, staring at the shops in front of him with a bored expression. As part of their examination, the boys were in charge of controlling and budgeting the allowance the schools had given them and the girls. The girls, however, were making more difficult than it sounded, as Stella demonstrated when she suggested Flora buy two ski jackets with a price tag which meant that they wouldn't be able to afford to eat for the rest of the week.

"I better go put a stop to this," Timmy said when he saw Stella start to consider buying two sets of ski boots.

"Kay, I'll go and check on the other girls," Riven told him, moving off quickly to avoid seeing Timmy smirk at him. Both of them knew for a fact that there was only one girl that Riven was going to check out, but that didn't mean Riven had to like Timmy's attitude about it. Grinning, Timmy headed over to begin the impossible task of informing Stella that no, she could not have everything her heart desired and more.

* * *

"I'm not sure if we're gonna have enough money to last the week," Sky noted as he and Brandon made their way back from the ticket office. And as a person who had never known a limit of money due to his rank, Sky found the looming threat of the budget very troubling. "These ticket prices are murder. The lifts at Eraklyon ski fields aren't that expensive, are they?"

"Dude, nothing in Eraklyon is too expensive to you," Brandon reminded his prince. "You've got your own members discount card for that entire realm."

"Well, yeah," Sky stammered, a little thrown by his sudden reminder of his rank. "But when we went to the Realm of Frost in freshmen year, they managed to get lift tickets for an entire grade and if they were doing that on these prices, our new campus would have been made up of second hand demountables."

"The Realm of Frost is a lot cheaper that the Resort Realm. Frost is still recovering from that massive attack a few years ago by the Angel of Doom and even if you found a ski field that was too expensive for your tastes, all you gotta go is travel five minutes to the next one. That kind of close competition makes from great deals. The Resort Realm Ski Village – if we can even call it that since it's the size of a city – is owned by the one company, and with no other ski field on this planet, you either gotta agree to their prices or spend your whole holiday hiking up a mountain for an hour just to get one run."

"You know, you're making it very hard for me to complain about this," Sky pointed out bitterly.

"Then find something else to bitch about."

"Okay, how 'bout how much this damn 'no frat' rules royally sucks?"

"Oh gods," Brandon said, rolling his eyes. He had really hoped Sky had gotten through complaining about his inability to make mushy eyes at Bloom for a week, but deep down in his heart he knew that had only been a fool's hope. He knew Sky hadn't spent as much time this year with Bloom as would have liked what with her needing to train in order to take on Lord Darkar, but sometimes the squire got tired of talking about the girls all the time. He _did_ have a life outside the Winx Club, after all.

"We have a week with them and we can't socialise," Sky continued to whinge, completely unaware of how uninterested Brandon was with this particular topic at this particular time.

"It's not so bad. You've just got to get into a chill mode," Brandon advised, trying to feign some interest in the matter for the sake of his prince. "I can do it."

"You sure you can handle it, Snookums?" Sky asked, forgetting for a moment that Brandon and Stella were not as perfect as some might think right that second.

"Yeah, can you?" Brandon shot back, elbowing his prince in the ribs.

"Yeah, I guess," Sky shrugged, not sounding too confident about it. "It still sucks though."

"I know," Brandon sighed. "Now I think there's something we need to investigate immediately before something fatal happens."

"What?" Sky asked, both alert and eager to do something other than carry shopping bags for his girlfriend and her friends.

"Find out what it is that Timmy is saying to make Stella look like she's ready to start up some slash and gore."

"Oh," Sky said, sounding inappropriately disappointed. It wasn't that he was hoping for some danger to show up and threaten Bloom, but he couldn't deny that it was a rather boring mission. Bourne and his squad had been sent off to try and stop a group of irate and unreasonable poachers who were all worked up due to the fact that they hadn't been able to hunt the winged liger since the Wrong Righters had started their campaign to protect it. Sky was in no rush to meet up with the Wrong Righters again, but the idea of a mission involving cutting their way through dense forest and fighting off poachers was slightly more appealing that following a bunch of teenage girls around while they shopped.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Galleria, another specialist was also feeling that his skills in heroics and bravery were going to waste on this mission as he watched one of his mission objectives sort through ski clothing, but he also had to admit that this mission did have its perks.

Riven wasn't much of a conversationalist. Unless he was complaining or arguing about something, he actually preferred to keep his mouth shut and just observe people and there wasn't any person he liked to observe more than Musa. He would never admit it out loud, but he liked how her pig tails bounced as she bopped her head to some beat in her head. He liked the way her lips would sometime move as she silently sung the words to some song and he liked the way she could never seem to stand still, even for a second. Even as she stood trying on ski hats, Riven could see her foot move slightly as she tapped out a tune that only she could hear. Riven continued to watch her as he pretended to be checking the area, and he wasn't even aware that he had slipped into a tranquil state of mind until she turned around and made him jump slightly.

"Do you wonna get dinner tonight Riven? Come on," she laughed. She had been well aware that he had been watching her and his continuous attention to her had made her bold. So far this year there had been very little improvement on their relationship – or at least, not in the ways she wanted it too – and the thought of spending a whole week with him was just too good an opportunity to pass up, with or without a fraternisation rule. Plus, she was fairly confident she could make him crack. After all, Riven did like to push the rules.

"No," Riven answered instantly, even though he would have really liked to have said yes. The only stopping him was that if he didn't get a decent grade this year, he might not be able to get his scholarship for his final year, and then he would not only miss out on graduation, but he'd also lose the chance to spend another year living in the same realm as this damn pixie that was tempting him now. "I can't socialise with you."

"Fine. Then why don't you go do a perimeter Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 !-- /* Style Definitions */ , , {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;} page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} 1 {page:Section1;} -- check or something?" Musa suggested, insulted that he had shot her down so quickly. Her navy eyes burned with anger, something that Riven found to be incredibly attractive. Ignoring the rules his teachers and himself had enforced in regards to Musa, Riven moved over to get right in her personal space and cupped one of the poufs that was dangling down from her hat. "Hey!"

"Your hat looks kinda cute," Riven told her with a sly smirk that made Musa's mouth go dry. That smirked annoyed her, and she suddenly had a huge desire to cover that mouth with her own so she wouldn't have to see it any more. She subconsciously shifted her weight into her toes, meaning that all she would have to do was lift her heels and she'd be at perfect height to cover that smirk

She was a heart beat away from doing it when she lost her nerve, which only made her angrier. Snatching the hat out of Riven's reach, Musa death glared him. "Don't socialise!" she snapped, trying to ignore the massive wave of regret and disappointment that gathered up inside of her.

"Well we can be polite, friendly and cordial, you know," Riven reminded her, and he was rewarded with Musa hurling the hat directly into his face.

"I'm out of here!" Musa growled, stalking off. Riven rolled his eyes upwards.

"This is going to be a long week."

* * *

"What do you mean we can't buy all this stuff? We've got the school's credit card, don't we?" Stella demanded, her hands on her hips and her expression fierce. _No one_ got between her and a descent shopping trip, especially some visually challenged computer nerd who wouldn't know fashion if he googled it.

"Yes, the school is paying for a lot of the trip, but we have a budget," Timmy reminded for the thousandth time. "If we spend it all on the first day, that's it. After that, everything will have to be paid with our own money. Now, I know you have a royal credit card, but a lot of the rest of us don't so we're just going to have to do without some things."

"So what? I can't buy these super cute KC (3) snow boots with the fluffy white fur on the top?"

"Only if it will feed the ten of us for the week," Brandon put bluntly. The ten teenagers and six pixies had all met up together to discuss the budget problem that they were all facing, and by discuss, of course that just meant Stella bitching to the boys about how she couldn't get everything she wanted.

"Stella, we've been over this," Sky said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "We need to have enough money to last this week which will include our camping trip later in the week where I can promise you that you won't need super cute KC snow boots with the fluffy white fur on the top. We need to save money here so we can spend it later. Even Tecna back us up on this."

"Oh, like she's understands fashion," Stella snapped, to angry to keep her tongue in check. "I mean, check out her clothes."

"Hey, that's not fair," Timmy objected, hoping to earn some points with Tecna. Unfortunately, it had the opposite affect.

"I can stand up for myself," Tecna told him sternly.

"Oh gods, shoot me now," Brandon grumbled, rubbing his eyes before leaping in to put a stop to all this. "Listen guys, we've just gotta make some sacrifices here. It'll be fine."

"Oh really? And what do you suggest we do, oh great leader of the people?" Stella asked sarcastically, causing several worried looks to be exchanged by the others. "Because at the moment, the only person who seems to be making any sacrifices is me!"

"Quit crying, princess. You're not the only one not getting what they want," Riven snapped, fed up with Stella's bitching. "We're not allowed to get park tickets because they're an extra expense."

"We're not getting park tickets?" Layla exclaimed, horror written on her face.

"No, we're not allowed. They're too expensive."

"That sucks."

"I know."

"Okay guys. That's enough," Sky stepped in. It was kind of an unwritten rule that whenever Riven and Layla agreed on something, it was time to step in and return everything to normal. "We've got to work this out."

"What's to work out? Timmy's cheap, I'm not getting boots and Riven and Layla want to go to a park. What's the big deal? If you want to go to a park so bad you can go to Riverside when we get home," Stella told them.

"A snow park, Stella. You know, with ramps, rails, jumps and a half pipe? That's the type of park we're talking about," Layla explained.

"Oh, you mean that place where snowboarders go to try and look cool?" Stella asked mockingly.

"Hey – "

"Enough!" Sky shouted, cutting Layla off and making everyone jump. "God, you're all acting like children! Seriously, this is pathetic! You girls were sent here to relax and bond before Lord Darkar's next attack, and look at you! You're ripping into each other over a pair of shoes!"

The group fell silent, and neither Stella nor Layla looked up at anyone.

"Now," Sky said in a much calmer tone of voice. "This is what we're going to do; we're not going to get any of the clothes here and we're not going to get any park tickets. Instead, we're going to hire all our gear from one of the hire shops here so we can spend our money on other things like, oh I don't know, food. Is that okay with everyone?"

"Yes," everyone grumbled, not sounding like they were enjoying their holiday so far at all, but no one dared to go up against Sky. He did not look like he was in the mood.

"Excellent. Let's go now so maybe we can hit the slopes before they call last runs."

As a group, they all headed over to the ski hire to get suited up with their gear. There were no more complaints about the budget, but everyone did hear Stella mumble in a not so quiet voice, "Well, I guess that means a treatment at The Snowflakes Winter Day Spa is out of the question then."

* * *

Impossible as it seemed, the group managed to collect all their gear and get changed in time to make it out onto the stops for a few runs before the mountain closed down for the night. The Resort Realm did offer night skiing when conditions were good, but reports were that they were only going to open the little kiddies lift that night to give the parents a bit of a night off. And even though they were there at the end of the day when the runs were no longer groomed and they were without park tickets and super cute KC snow boots with the fluffy white fur on the top, the group of teenagers couldn't help but grin as they headed out to the mountain.

"This is gonna be great," Bloom squealed, almost skipping along as she tried to juggle her skis in her arms. Only Sky, Brandon, Riven and Layla had gone for snowboards while the rest had skis. Musa had been tempted to try snowboarding, but she wasn't too thrilled with the thought of spending the next few days on her ass, to which Layla assured her she would find places in her butt to hurt that she didn't even knew existed (4). She could have gotten lesson as could have any of the others, but everyone said they were happy to learn on their own. No one said it, but they all were doing their bit not to push the budget and piss Sky off.

"Why didn't we go skiing last holidays?" Sky asked Brandon.

"Because it was summer," Brandon answered.

"I have a ship and it was winter in other parts of the universe."

"Congratulations. Do you want a metal for that answer?" Brandon teased.

"Oh shut up," Sky ordered, but it lacked the bite he had been using while discussing the budget.

No one could explain it, but it seemed the seconds they stepped out onto the mountain, all the tension seemed to seep out of them and replace it with a good mood. Even Riven didn't complain when Musa dumped her skis in his arms and ordered him to, "Carry these."

"There it is," Sky announced, looking up at the massive peck in front of them. "Sunset Mountain."

"That mountain looks really high," Lockette noted in her quavering voice.

"The view's up there is amazing," Brandon told them all. The Resort Realm was the first place that Brandon had travelled to with the Royal Family outside of Eraklyon. He knew every run on this mountain like the back of his hand and it was one of his favourite places to ski. "Come on."

"Let's go!" Bloom cheered.

"Yeah!" Brandon agreed, leading off the charge to the lift. There were countless lifts that went up Sunset Mountain in many different forms, including T-Bars, poma's, J-Bars, rope tows, magic carpets, chairlifts that carried anywhere between two and eight people and gondolas, just like the one they were all taking to the top of the mountain.

"That's how we get there?" Lockette asked, acting as if the gondola was going to double as her coffin.

Tecna also seemed to have her doubts about this form of transport. Fortunately, she didn't think it would be the means of her death, only her discomfort. "Are we all going to fit in there?"

"Come on!" Brandon told them, jumping up into the gondola. He had complete faith in these machines. He knew for a fact that Eraklyon ski resorts spent thousands of dollars each summer maintaining their lifts and after the attack of the Angel of Doom in the Realm of Frost, half of the charity funds and financial loans given to them by other realms went to fixing their ski facilities since it was their main source of tourism. Brandon was sure that the Resort Realm would practice that same kind of professionalism. "You girls spent half to day getting your outfits. Let's get in here and hit the slopes."

Without any more arguing, they all piled into the lift. Tecna's doubts proved to be pretty much on the mark when they all realised – with the combination of the six girls, four boys, six pixies and all their ski's and snowboards – just how squished it was inside the gondola.

"Think skinny," Brandon advised when the doors closed.

"And keep your hands to yourself," Layla added.

"Yeah, cause that was exactly what I – Whoa!" Riven flinched as Chatta speed through his legs and launched herself into the air like a rocket with an excited squeal which hurt the ears of many of the gondolas occupants.

"This is going to be so fun!" the little being cheered loudly.

"Damn pixies."

"Are you guys sure you'll be able to get down the mountain without skiing lessons?" Lockette asked. She had been asking these annoying questions all day – Is if hygienic to use hired ski boots? What if someone catches hypothermia? Were they aware that two people had been attacked by mountain lions in this region in the last three decades? – but everyone were looking forward to getting out on the slopes so much that they all endured it patiently.

"I have complete confidence that we'll be able to get down the mountain," Timmy assured her, but his smile faded slightly when he remember his last trip to the snow. "The condition of us when we get to the bottom, however, may be another story."

"You got the hang of it last time," Brandon reminded him.

"I got a concussion."

"Least you didn't end up wrapped around a tree."

"True."

Lockette had paled. "That can happen?"

"Yeah, skiing is one of the most dangerous sports you can get. Strapping two long planks to your feet and relying on gravity to get you moving with stationary objects located at various points along the route. It's the perfect combination for bone breaking fun," Riven grinned, freaking the pixies further and earning him a sharp elbow in the side from Bloom. "What?"

Bloom did even dignify that was a response.

A short time later, the teenagers and their companion pixies found themselves on the top of the mountain looking out at the long run in front of them. A light breeze shifted through the air, hitting their exposed skin with a refreshing coolness. The warm sun rays shining through the grounds reflected off the snow with a brightness that would have been painful if not for the yellow tinted glasses they all wore. From this vantage point, they could see all of the snow reign and out to the forest reign. Way out in the distance, they could see the coast where the Resort Realm's sea side reign was in full force, an odd thought to consider when you're standing on a mountain top that's covered in snow. It was an incredible view and a long run ahead of them.

"I should have taken lessons," Timmy groaned, taking in the length of the run.

"You know, sometimes it's good to be spontaneous," Tecna informed him with a sideways look that – despite the cold climate around them – made him feel very warm.

Unable to wait any longer, Sky threw his board onto the ground. Due to magical advancement in recreational sporting equipment, the snowboards they had hired had special bindings that allowed them to just step onto the board and they could be strapped in without the hassle of trying to work the buckles through thick ski gloves, instead relying on the individuals brain waves to determine whether they were strapped or not. It was certainly convenient, but Sky still felt uneasy about them. He didn't like how it looked as he was just standing on top of the board and he also didn't like the fact that the only thing actually holding him onto the board could come undone depending on what he was thinking at any given moment. However, they needed to keep a budget and he wanted to board.

Stepping into his bindings, Sky looked back at the others with a wide grin on his face. Old competitive instincts that he had left at the Realm of Frost suddenly rushed through his veins, and if there was one person he knew he could rely on to slay that desire. "Hey Riven, what do you say you and me board ahead of them?"

"Okay," Riven instantly agreed, picking up on Sky subtle challenge in the same way that a cat instinctively knows to prey on mice. "Last one down pays for dinner tonight."

"Eat my dust!" Sky challenged, tipping his weight and starting his downward decent. A second later, the prince realised that there was snow, not soil, beneath him making it impossible for there to be any dust for Riven to eat, but by then Riven was already clipped in and hot on his heels so there was no time to discuss figure of speech.

"They're the reason skiers hate snowboarders," Brandon muttered to Timmy as they watched their friends speed off. Back in freshmen year, Sky and Riven had spent most of their free time in the Realm of Frost tearing down the slopes at dangerous speeds in an effort to best one another. Eventually, Codatorta threatened to take their lift tickets off them if they didn't slow down after he copped an earful off an elderly skier who got cut off by the two of them.

But there were no teachers here now to tell them off, and everyone was ready to have some fun. Layla in particular, looked to be in her element. The water around them was frozen, but it was still water and Layla could feel every molecule. Her teal eyes were glowing with a delight that none of the boys had seen before, but there was a slight glint of competitiveness that they boys knew all too well.

"Come on Piff. We'll show 'em," Brandon heard her say to her pixie. Moving forward, Layla threw down her board and stepped into the bindings without breaking her pace and in one motion, she started off down the slopes after Sky and Riven. As he watched her board off, Brandon could tell that – even with a head start – Sky and Riven were going to have a hard time keeping her off their tails. That girl could carve.

Layla departure had been like a starting gun for the others. They all stepped into their ski's – or snowboard in the case of Brandon – and with a 'whoo-hoo' in unison, the group skied off, officially starting off their holiday.

Meanwhile, further down the mountain, Sky and Riven were still racing one another and it was proving to be a pretty close race. Sky had years of experience over Riven when it came to snow sports, but Riven had natural talent and he wasn't afraid to take risks, and when that was coupled with the extraordinary balance of a thief, it made for a commendable opponent. And Sky was looking for any advantage he had.

"Who's that behind you?" Sky asked, looking back over his shoulder and seeing Riven one turn behind him looking for a chance to slip into the lead.

"Huh?"

"It's Musa," Sky told him, even though the musical fairy was no where in sight. It was a dirty tactic, but Sky wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if Riven started pulling out his underhanded tricks to win this race.

"Er, I don't see her," Riven confessed, slowing down.

Sky grinned and widened his lead. "Gotcha!"

Riven silently cursed himself for falling for such a foolish and obvious decoy, but when he noticed something Sky didn't due to the fact that the prince was still grinning back at him, Riven dug in his heel-side and came to a swift stop. "Hey Sky! Watch out for that tree!"

"Nice try but I'm not falling for – " Sky started, but when he finally turned around and looked where he's going, he realised with horror that for once in his life Riven was telling the truth. "A tree!"

With as much grace and dignity a person could possibly have in a situation like this – which is absolutely none – Sky ploughed straight into the pine tree obstructing his path with enough force to make his ears ring. His feet clipped out of their bindings and it was only through good luck that his board didn't start sliding down the slope, which would have been both dangerous for people further down the mountain and inconvenient for Sky who really didn't feel like hiking down a mountain. Sky's impact with the tree had enough force behind it to shake large clumps of snow out of the branches and land directly onto the prince who was crumpled at the base of the tree and humiliate him further.

Trying desperately not to laugh out loud at his friends pain, Riven jumped and switched his board so that its nose was once again facing downhill, allowing him to board past the prince with infuriating casualness. "You okay?"

"Oh yeah" Sky assured him, sounding both embarrassed and annoyed that of all the people on the mountain, he had to crash in front of Riven.

Spinning around so that he was toe-side into the mountain, Riven looked back up the mountain with a wide smile that he couldn't hide if he wanted to where Sky was weakly getting to his feet. "You know, you can just give up."

"Yeah, you wish."

"Seriously, if you can't see something like a tree, maybe you should stay in the villa. Or you can go hang out in the chalet with the senior citizens and the under fives?"

"Shut up, Riven," Sky said, rubbing the snow out of his hair as he stepped back into his bindings.

"I'm just watchin' out for you man."

"Well you can watch all you want; watch me kick you ass in this downhill, that it," Sky grinned, kicking off down the mountain. Riven smirked and just like that, Sky's wipe out was forgotten until a time for taunting presented itself again and the race was back on.

Finally, the bottom to the lift came into view, signalling the end of the run and there still wasn't a clear winner. The pair was just too evenly matched. It was only though luck that Sky somehow managed to gain some ground on Riven and slip into the lead. "Almost there," Sky commented as he boarded past.

"Dude?" Riven asked, looking up as Sky slid past him. Narrowing his violet eyes, Riven straightened his board so that he was on neither of his edges and instead was just buttering down the slopes, picking up a dangerous amount of speed. Sky was doing a similar thing with his board in an effort to get that little bit of speed that might win him the race. It was neck and neck right down to the last few meters, when suddenly . . .

"Watch out!" Sky shouted, shifting back onto his heel edge so suddenly that his board curved out and crossed over the nose of Riven's board that had pulled into a similar stance, causing the pair to crash painfully at the bottom of the run. Left in a heap of snow, snowboards and aching limbs, Sky and Riven weakly pushed themselves until they were sitting up right, and it was then that they noticed that there was a person standing in front of them, silhouetted by the sinking sun. Peering past the bright suns rays, the two boys eyes widened when they both realised in unison that the person standing in front of them was none other than . . .

"_Layla?" _

The Princess of Tides had already unstrapped herself out of her bindings and was leaning on her board which had its nose stuck vertically in the snow in a casual pose that suggested that she had been waiting there for a long time. She looked absolutely delighted at the crumpled heap of boys at her feet, and almost seemed to purr when she said, "I guess you guys are buying dinner tonight."

"You started after us so how the hell did you get down here first?" Riven demanded to know, stomping to his feet and shaking the snow out of his spiky hair like a dog.

"I board every winter and I surf every summer," Layla told him. "Do you think there's even the slightest possibility that I don't know how to carve?"

"Alright; rematch."

"Riven, we had a head start and she just kicked out asses," Sky pointed out, climbing to his feet. "What makes to think a rematch is going to change anything."

"It's the challenge of it all," Riven answered before looking Layla in the eye. "You up for it?"

"Ph-_lease_, this is going to be a sinch," she grinned, looking like she was finally looked like she was having fun.

Nine runs later and with nine victories to Layla and nil to Sky and Riven, the sun was starting to go down and they only had time for one more run before the mountain closed down for the night. The group all made it to the bottom of the mountain with Bloom and Flora skiing in last.

"Hey guys, let's do one more run before it gets dark," Flora suggested and no one opposed her. While no one was going to be appearing in the next Winter Games, everyone had been able to pick up on skiing to the point that they were confident of being able to get down the slopes no matter how difficult or steep.

With that thought in mind, Digit checked her digital data she had complied on the Resort Realms alpine region to selected their next run. "You should go up to Copper Peak. It's the steepest slope in the entire Resort Realm."

"Yeah, that sounds like fun," Bloom agreed, moving off to the gondola that would take them up to mountain.

"Here we go," Sky said as he ushered the others inside.

"We could ski to the Pie and Gill," Brandon suggested. He was starving and he was dying for some stake. However, Sky had told his squire for budgeting reasons they couldn't afford the meal, but Brandon knew a way to turn his prince around on the matter. "Have a candle lit dinner with the girls?"

Sky was definitely tempted, but his duty remained steadfast. "We can't."

"Dude, these rules really stink," Brandon groaned. He really wanted that steak.

"This is going to be a lot tougher than I thought," Sky confessed, and Brandon knew that he was thinking about a different type of meat.

"It's only for a week."

"A very long week."

"Would you two get over here already?!" Riven ordered and the two Eraklyains quickly scurried off before the lift doors closed.

* * *

"This is a long lift," Stella noted, peering out the window at the snow field below.

"It's a long run," Sky pointed out.

"Is it safe to build a lift this long and this steep?" Tecna asked as the gondola shook when a strong gust of wind hit it.

"You'd think so," Brandon said as the gondola steadied out. "I mean, they would have had to have had a mountain load of research put into this thing before they even drew up the plans. This is a universal class resort. They've got to make sure everything is first class and a hundred-and-ten percent safe for the sake of their reputation. If the littlest thing goes wrong – even if no one gets hurt – it could shut them down."

"You haven't answered my question," Tecna pointed out. "You're just assuming."

"And you know what they say; never assume. It makes an ASS out of U and ME."

"Who says that?" Musa asked with a grin.

"My Dad. And my eighth grade maths teacher."

"Cute," Bloom said.

"My maths teacher? No way. He was a drunk," Brandon told her. "I'm serious. He used to take a flask full of whiskey to school every day which he used spike his coffee with. You could smell it on him whenever he came back from recess. He never taught us any maths either. Although he did devote a lesson to how to choose a teapot with a spout that doesn't drip. It had diagrams and everything (5). I really miss eighth grade."

"Wow, what a long and pointless story," Riven grumbled.

"If you can't say something nice, you should say nothing at all," Tune told him sternly, but Riven simply rolled his eyes at her lecture. Tune looked ready to skewer Riven with her umbrella when the gondola shook again.

"Bloom, I'm feeling kind of queasy," Lockette said, her voice shaking.

"We're almost there Lockette," Brandon assured her. No sooner had the words left his lips, than the lift came to a sudden and unexpected stop.

"What happened?" Flora asked.

"What's the dealeo?" Musa questioned.

"Why did it stop?" Layla demanded to know, giving the third example of how to asked 'what is going on?' in a matter of a few seconds.

Looking up at the roof, Timmy noticed a maintenance hatch that would lead directly to the cable outside. And he had a feeling that they'd be able to get more of an idea of what was happening once they looked out there. "Give me a hand guys. I can talk a look up there for us."

It was Brandon who volunteered, and with the help of Sky and Riven to steady them, the squire managed to stand at full height with Timmy on his shoulders. "As soon as we get out of here, we need to buy you a cake or something, Timmy," Brandon commented as Timmy worked open the hatch. "I don't think a male your age should be this light."

"Would a cake fit in the budget?" Stella asked venomously.

"You're still not upset about that, are you Stel?" Bloom asked.

"I wanted to go to The Snowflakes Winter Day Spa," Stella pouted.

"Maybe next time."

Meanwhile, Timmy finally stuck his head through the hatch and got a look at the cable, and what he saw did not look good. "Uh-oh."

"What's going on?" Tecna called up.

"This cable is about to break!" Timmy reported. The cable that was the only thing supporting them and the other two-hundred gondola carriages on this lift had become frayed after years of running despite the Resort Realm's budget cuts. Scanning the line, Timmy couldn't see any other people in the carriages near them – as far as he knew, they were the only ones still riding the lift – but he also couldn't see any staff watch stations which had to be a flaw in design.

"Oh!" everyone exclaimed in horror.

Lockette paled dramatically. "Now I'm really queasy."

The pixie looked ready to faint when the cable gave a little more, causing the gondola to drop lower. Everyone screamed, expecting the worse, but the gondola then levelled out. The only question was; how long did they have before it gave away completely.

"You have to transform!" Amore quickly told the girls. Her and the other pixies could fly down safely, but there was no way they were leaving their bonded fairies in this danger.

"We can't transform," Stella reminded her.

"There's got to be a logical solution," Tecna assured everyone.

"Boys, you have to do something. This is the reason why you're here," Musa pointed out to them.

"Right. What are we gonna do?" Brandon asked as soon as they got Timmy off his shoulders.

"I say we sue this realm for all its worth," Riven suggested. "These guys make thousands of dollars of revenue per month and this is an obvious case of negligence of duty of care. If they're going to run these machines they have to unsure that public safety is their highest priority. It's an open and shut case. We'll be set up for life."

"Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and put that in the 'if we survive' pile, but until we get to that, what are we going to do?" Brandon asked again.

"Well, in the Realm of Frost they would evacuate people from lifts by lowering them to the ground using harness and ropes loped over the cables," Timmy said, recalling an assignment they had to do in freshmen year as part of their excursion.

"Except we don't have any harness, ropes or anything that would be strong enough to make those things. Also I don't think it's a good idea to put our faith in a breaking cable. After all, that is the thing that got us into this trouble in the first place," Sky pointed out.

"I blame management," Riven commented.

"Yes, I heard you the first time, but we can sue them later. Right now, can we please focus?" Sky asked, silently praying to the gods that he'd never get himself into a situation that resulted in him relying solely on the help of his classmates. Knowing that they easily got sidetrack did not fill him with much confidence. "Does anyone have their PHA?"

"I left mine back at the villa," Brandon confessed while everyone else simply shook their heads, no. "I didn't think we'd need it skiing. Although now that I think about it, it would come in handy in case anyone needed to readjust their bindings. I'll bring it next time, for sure."

"I think that might belong in the 'if we survive' pile," Riven said dryly.

"Are you guys taking this seriously?" Tecna had to ask, a little unimpressed with the boys rescue skills.

"We're coming up with a plan," Brandon assured her.

"Yeah, and at the moment all those ideas are going straight to the 'if we survive' pile," Stella pointed out bitterly. "And I hate to admit it, but the only one of you making any sense at the moment is Riven and that's only because with his idea, I might be able to afford a decent ski holiday."

"C'mon guys. Let's not start fighting," Bloom begged. "It's not going to help."

"Right, and standing around construction an 'if we survive' list is?" Layla questioned. "Someone do something."

"Yeah guys," Stella stressed.

Even Musa – who was normally the first person to tell everyone to chillax – was getting frustrated. "Why did they ever assign you boys?"

"Yeah, you can't even protect us," Stella added spitefully.

"I told you, we're coming up with a plan" Brandon reminded her sharply.

"Well, what is it?" Layla asked.

Even Flora was starting to get impatient. "Yes, what is it?"

"Hey! Quiet!" Bloom finally snapped, making everyone jump slightly. No one had really ever heard Bloom get angry at them before except for when she was spelled that time when Alfea's part of the Codex was stolen, so her uncharacteristic anger really caught their attention. "Stop arguing. We can do this. We just have to work together."

The look on everyone's face confirmed that everyone was feeling shameful for the childish way they were carrying on, so Layla wasted no time by saying, "She's right."

"Yeah," Brandon agreed.

"Right on," Musa seconded just as the cable dropped lower, freaking everyone else out again.

"Okay, now that everyone agrees to work together, what do we do?" Timmy asked, trying to keep his voice from shaking.

"The first thing you have to do is take off your snow jackets," Bloom ordered, resulting in many raised eyebrows and several confessed sideways glances. "Trust me. I have a plan."

Everyone was hesitant but then did what they were told. As they stripped off, Bloom quickly rushed through her plan for their escape. The idea bordered on the edge of crazy, but it was their only plan at the moment and history had proven that even the most ridiculous of Winx Cub ideas could work, such as the time they used cleaning products to take down a Minotaur. From there, Bloom divided them into groups in ordered to complete different tasks that needed to be done for her plan to work. The four boys were assigned along with Tecna to build a frame made out of their ski equipment while Musa, Stella and Flora started sewing all their jackets together using a sewing kit Tune always carried with her. Bloom supervised them all while doubling as a ladder for Layla as she sat on her shoulders, keeping an eye on the cable.

"Do you think this'll work?" Riven muttered to Sky softly so the others couldn't overheard them.

"It has to cause I really don't feel like dropping out of the sky without a parachute today," Sky told him.

"It's not that big of a drop."

"I don't see you making the jump."

"Oh shut up."

"Timmy, can you put you're finger here please," Tecna asked as she went about tying Bloom's ski pole to one of Flora's ski's.

Brandon looked over at Sky and Riven, a devilish grin plastered on his face. "You reckon that's the first time she said that to him?"

Sky glared at his squire. "You are a dirty, dirty pervert who needs to get you're mind out of the gutter or else someone's gonna punch you right in that pretty boy face of yours. And Riven, stop smiling right now or I'll do it for you."

"You weren't even looking at me," Riven said, wondering when it was that Sky grew eyes in the back of his head.

"I could feel you," Sky told him sternly before turning back around to scold Brandon again when he saw his squire grin at his words. "What did I just tell you?"

Unaware of what it was their friends were talking about, Timmy and Tecna continued working with the dedication and focus that their friends, teachers and themselves expected of them.

"Tenca, I think you need to tie that an inch higher or else the frame will be uneven which would result in the favouring of one side," Timmy pointed out democratically.

"Oh yes. I see your point," Tecna nodded, fixing her mistake. Glancing over at the A Plus student, Tecna couldn't help but note how impressive it was that he could visualise every part of this frame without blue prints and still make the necessary calculations. She was still annoyed with him for never making the first move on her, but she did admire his brilliance. "You're actually pretty good at this Timmy. Not a bad technique."

"You and I make a pretty good team, Tecna," Timmy blurted out before remembering that he wasn't really in the good books with her. But – awkward as it was – Timmy was willing to try and change that. "Maybe we should try . . . er . . . doing other stuff as a team?"

Tecna smiled at both the effort and the adorable blush that spread across Timmy's face. "Maybe."

"He's makin' a move," Brandon noted quietly, jabbing Sky in the side sharply with his elbow.

"Stop eavesdropping," Sky ordered, focusing on his task and not on Timmy's social life. Glancing up for a second when he heard Stella comment on Flora's sewing, he quickly noted that the girls were almost done and luckily, so were they.

"How does it look Layla?" Bloom called.

"Er, not too good," Layla confessed. "You guys almost done?"

"We are!" Stella announced, holding up her patchwork ski/jumper quilt.

Tecna tightened one final knot and then stepped back to view hers and the boys handy work. "I think that'll about do it. Now all we need to do is attach the two of them together."

Five minutes later, Bloom's vision was realised in the form of a very crudely built hang-glider. Its frame was made up of ski's, snowboards and ski poles and the material was the sown together ski jackets. It was in no way going to break any extreme sports records, but it was hopefully going to cushion their fall enough to give them a softer landing.

"I think it looks pretty good," Brandon commented, looking very pleased with himself. "Sure, it's not gonna win any beauty contests, but it's not bad when you remember we didn't have much of a choice when it came to materials."

"Who cares what it looks like, I just hope it works," Stella said.

"How's the cable looking, Layla?" Musa asked.

"It looks pretty bad. You better hurry it up," Layla advised, dropping down.

"We're almost ready," Riven reported as they started edging the hang glider towards the door that he and Sky had pried open a few minutes ago.

"Okay, we really have to do this as a team," Bloom reminded everyone.

"Yeah! As a team!" Musa repeated enthusiastically.

Wasting no time, the group all lined up in front of the bar that would be the only thing stopping them from plummeting to the snowy ground below. From left to right it went Bloom, Sky, Stella, Musa, Flora, Brandon, Riven, Tecna, Timmy and then finally Layla. The weight was relatively even on both sides, but it wasn't the flight they were worried about; it was the landing. There was no time or materials to construct anything that even slightly resembled a breaking system so their only option now was to crash. The only thing that wasn't certain was how soft the snow was going to be. The snow was fresh since it had only fallen that morning, but the shadow had fallen over that side of the mountain so they weren't sure if it was powder or cement that awaited them at the bottom.

"Hold on tight," was Bloom's final instruction, and as the cable snapped and carriage dropped rapidly to the ground, the group pushed off out of the gondola. The hang-glider may not have the looks, but it did the job. The ski jackets caught the wind and carried them out of harms way, and when they crashed into ground, they were fortunate enough to land into powder instead of snow that had started to freeze over. Everyone ended up buried to their neck in snow, but alive and they all knew it was all thanks to one fairy.

"Good work Bloom!" Sky cheered, trying to ignore the chilling snow that had ended up down his pants in the crash.

Bloom's fiery red hair resurfaced out from underneath the snow and the first thing she did was count the heads of her friends. "Yeah! Alright! We did it! Is everybody okay?"

"Thanks to you we are," Layla grinned, looking like a head without a body.

"I can't tell you I was so worried about everybody. I'm just glad we're all out of there and safe," Bloom confessed, shifting through the snow to give Sky a relieved hug. Aft that near death experience, the fraternisation rule could be lift for a second. They had earned it.

"We got out cause of you Bloom," Sky told her. "You were brave and awesome."

Bloom smiled warmly at his words, but that smile quickly changed to surprise as she felt a jolt of magical energy swell inside her and a small, heart shaped broach appeared on her chest. "Hey! What's that?"

"You go a charmix, Bloom," Chatta informed her cheerfully, making the Earth girls eyes widen. Of course, she knew all about charmixes since it had been one of the first things her teachers had taught her this year, but she would have never thought that she'd be the first to get one. So far no one in her grade had received theirs, and she had been told that most fairies didn't get them until they were in the junior year. She knew she was the strongest fairy at Alfea because of the Dragon Fire, but there were other fairies who were smarted and understood magic a whole let better than she did and she had been sure that they would have gotten their charmix before her. "Fairies get them when they get in touch with they're true selves."

Bloom was still stunned when her charmix vanished, but she knew it was there, waiting to be called upon. It was joined by a familiar feeling that she hadn't felt since entering the Resort Realm; a surge of magic. "It's giving me some kind of power."

Whether it was because Bloom had just saved their lives, or because she got her charmix meaning that they now had a little bit of magic at their disposal, everyone cheered and started digging themselves out of the snow.

"Well, now what do we do?" Amore asked as soon as everyone was free.

"I guess we need to report this to the mountain operations staff," Timmy said, looking up at the ruined gondola.

"I'm actually kind of surprised no one's noticed this yet," Brandon commented. "I mean, they've got operator at each end of this lift, don't they? You'd think they'd notice that it was not longer working or even in one piece."

"That is odd," Flora agreed.

"And concerning," Tecna added.

"See if I holiday here again," Stella said with a flick of her blonde hair. "And now we have to walk down the mountain since our ski gears all messed up. Plus, we might not get our deposit back."

"We're not walking," Riven told her firmly, digging a board out of the snow. He wasn't sure if it was his, but it wasn't broken and his boots clipped into the bindings. "I'll go down and get the staff to get up here with snow mobiles."

"Why are you the one who gets to go?" Sky asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"Because you're too nice. These guys deserve to be ripped to shreds, and I'm gonna do that and then rub salt in it," Riven growled and no one challenged him any more. It was a well known fact that if you wanted to rip someone a new one, send in Riven. Strapping up, Riven looked over at Layla who had unearthed her snowboard. "I take it you're coming with me then?"

"Someone's gotta keep you on track," Layla pointed out. "You can insult these guys all you want, but it'll all be kind of pointless if everyone else freezes up here in the process."

"Whatever. Let's go."

Less than an hour later, Riven and Layla returned along with five mountain operation personal on snowmobiles. The personal included two ski patrol first aid officers, two lift mechanics and supervisors and the resort manager. All of them looked extremely troubled by the lift breaking like it did and they kept glancing nervously at Riven and Layla, a clear indication that they had already copped an earful off of the two teenagers at the bottom of the mountain.

"Well, everything looks okay here. Not a single scratch," one of the ski patrollers grinned as sweetly as he could, and all the teenagers noticed how big his mouth and teeth were (6). "In fact, the only thing that's slightly unusual is having so many beautiful young ladies in the one place at the same time."

"Don't even try and be cute. You've still got one hell of a lawsuit heading your way," Riven spat, making the smile to drop from the ski patroller's big mouth and causing the resort manager to pale and break out into a panicked sweat.

"Really, there's no need for talk like that. I'm sure we can work out a compromise of some kind," the resort manager assured them, his voice shaking in a combination of both anxiety and panic.

Riven, however, was as cold as the snow that surrounded them and when he turned to regard the resort manager, he wore an expression that was frighteningly serious. "Don't treat me like a fool. I understand exactly how much trouble you're in. It's your legal obligation to ensure the safety of these machines and yet you let this lift deteriorate to the point where the cable actually snapped is inconceivable for a resort which boasts a universal level of excellence. Not only are you in a world of legal drama, but if this ever gets out, your resorts reputation will ruined."

The resort manager really started to sweat now, and he looked like he was going to be sick. "Yes, well, hopefully we can come to some kind of agreement where – "

"Don't you advertise that your resort is supposed to be the ideal holiday location for all members of the family?" Riven asked. "So you expect children and the elderly to ride this death trap? We only just made it out alive and we're a group of physically fit teenagers."

"Isn't he being slightly melodramatic?" Bloom noted quietly

"You'd never think it, but Riven sometimes has a flare for the dramatic," Brandon told her.

"He does have some excellent points though," Sky commented. "It's enough to make you wonder whether this speech was premeditated or if he's just making it up as he goes along."

"You should have heard the one he gave at the bottom of the mountain," Layla told them. "I wish they had a dictionary for swear words because I had no idea what half the words he said even existed let alone what they mean."

"Yeah, I've had that feeling before," Sky said, before turning his attention back to listening Riven rip the resort manager a new one. His wording was elegantly brutal and in a matter of minutes he had the mountain staff quivering in their snow boots that this teenager was going to single-handedly destroy them to a point where they could never come back from.

"Please," the resort manager begged, looking as if he was going to have a stroke any minute now. "If we could just come to some arrangement where – "

"Are you trying to bribe me so I won't go to the press?" Riven asked, his expression impossible to read.

"No, I – "

"Because if you are, you're going to have to give me everything I ask for and nothing less, understand?"

Everyone blinked. Riven had just spent the last few minutes telling the resort manager exactly how he was going to ruin him and his resort with such detail that it never even occurred to anyone that he was going to do anything other than those things. "What?" several people asked in unison, confused at Riven's sudden change of game.

"You heard me," Riven told them before getting serious. "We have a budget we need to use up, be anything we want that exceeds that budget will be covered by you and your resort. I also want our lift tickets refunded and replaced with all access tickets including park access. They'll of course be free of charge since we're obviously risking our lives to ride these death traps of yours. You're also going to replace all our ski equipment with new equipment that we may keep if we want to – "

"Er, Riven, do we really need that?" Timmy dared to interrupt. He knew that their equipment needed to be replaced since most of it had been damaged when they converted them into a hang-glider and then crashed it into the ground, but he had also seen the prices of some of the ski's and snowboards they had for sale, and if the Resort Realm was just going to hand over that gear to them it was going to cost them thousands upon thousands of dollars to do so.

"It doesn't matter. I want it and I better get it or else we're all going to end up talking to Mel and Koshi on Sunrise and I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that is not what anyone wants," Riven said before returning his attention back to the resort manager. "We'll want all our meals to be catered by one of the many chefs I'm sure you have on offer here and I'm sure they won't mind delivering it to our villa as we need it. I also have a feeling we might want a few snow mobiles just for the hell of it and we'll be needing jet-ski's."

"Jet-ski's?" Sky and the ski patroller with the big teeth repeated.

"We're going to the camping region later in the week. And if you're starting think that maybe it would be easier if you just risked you reputation rather than paying us to be silent, I'm gonna tell you straight up that that would be a very bad idea. We could make this very difficult for you," Riven said, glancing at Stella slyly. "Isn't that right, your Highness?"

Normally, there were no signals before all hell broke loose, but having Riven address Stella with a formal title of respect had to be some sign of the Apocalypse. All the Red Fountain boys were surprised he could say it without his teeth breaking, but it had the exact reaction he had been hoping for. The mountain operations personal all turned – if it was possible – an even lighter shade of pale and it took a long time before the resort manager was able to stutter, "Y-You're royalty?"

"Did I fail to mention that?" Riven asked calmly. "How forgetful of me. Allow me to introduce her Royal Highness Princess Stella, Radiant Jewel of Solaria and sole heir to their throne. And then there's of course His Royal Highness Crowned Prince Sky the Third of Eraklyon, Princess Musa of the Royal House of the Harmonic Nebular, Crown Princess Layla of Tides and finally, Princess Bloom of Earth, the Last Princess of Sparx, Keeper of the Dragon Fire and saviour of the universe."

"You really didn't recognise me?" Stella asked with a coy flick of her hair. She and Riven made pretty dangerous enemies, but as allies, they were positively deadly. "I came here a few years back with my family and a few of our friends from the Royal Court of Solaria. We were actually thinking of coming back here some time next year, but after all that has happened I think I might just ask Daddy if we can go to the Realm of Frost instead."

"Anything you want, it's yours," the resort manager promised them. After all, the Resort Realm could not afford to lose their royal clientele.

Riven almost let himself grin at his victory. "I knew you'd see it our way."

"Also, I want free treatments for me and all my friends at The Snowflakes Winter Day Spa," Stella added on. "After they've closed the runs down for the night of course. I don't want to miss out on any of our time skiing, now do I?"

"Of course, anything you want," the manager offered with a smile.

"Excellent! Now let's get off this mountain and back to the villa already. I'm freezing!"

"Of course, your Highness. Right this way."

"Well, our job just got a whole lot easier," Timmy noted as they all headed for the snow mobiles.

* * *

_(1) See Chapter Eleven: Homesick _

_(2) I used to live in a place that had rats like that. We couldn't do anything about 'em cause they were endangered so you just got desensitised to them, though it was still kinda gross whenever you saw them scurry over the bench where we stored to pots and pans at one in the morning after the pub had closed_

_(3) DC and K2 are both brands of snow equipment so I just merged them together. I also have those snow boots by the way and ironically they're neither DC or K2 brand, but I love 'em anyways_

_(4) So true! My ass was killing me while I was learning to board. The worst ones was when you'll fall on your ass and it went straight up your spine to give you a headache _

_(5) That little story about Brandon's schooling before he got to Red Fountain is based on actual events from my high school years. We did have a maths teacher who occasionally had coffee that smelt slightly suspicious (though I just that was better than the time one of the geography teachers came to class smelling like pot) and there was a time during a Year 12 (Australia's equivalent of senior year) when the legal studies teacher raised the question 'How do you find a teapot that doesn't drip' before going about explaining it instead of continuing his lesson on crime. Man I miss high school _

_(6) I know this guy. He was a sexist ass _

_You may or may not be aware of this, but I've actually worked at a ski resort for a few winters so while I loved writing the snow sports side of it (I probably threw in a few terms that non boarders wouldn't really understand, but oh well), there were a few elements of this episode that annoyed me. You don't have to listen to me vent, but I'm gonna do it anyway. _

_First of all, what was with their snowboard binding? They looked ridiculous just standing on their boards like they were surf boards. And the fact that they can unclipped out of them is not only stupid, it's dangerous. Rule 6 of the Australian Alpine Code clearly states that you must use all restraining devices on your equipment. Boards don't have ski breaks like ski's do, and when you've got one of them hurling down the mountain with no means of stopping it, it's enough to break bones, as I had to keep telling beginner boarders time and time again. My foot ached when I stepped in front of a board to stop it and that was only at the bottom of the beginners lift which was only 15 meters long. Imagine how bad it would be if it picked up momentum from the top of a mountain. And I haven't skied outside of Australia, but I can't see any reason why a resort would want lifts where you've got to clip out of your ski's and boards for. Seems like a massive waste of time at the start and end of every run._

_But the main thing that drives me nuts is the fact that this resort actually let their lift deteriorate to the point where the cable snapped. It didn't just derail, it actually snapped. I know it's fictional, but what the hell were their mechanics doing? And they should have lift operators stations at various points along the life so they can see the entire line. There's no other safe way to do that. And how come no one ever come to rescue them? They were in that broken lift long enough to argue amongst themselves before reuniting to build a hang-glider from scratch. What the hell? _

_That ski resort has some serious problems. _

_TBC. _


	21. Trouble in Paradise

_Strap yourselves in guy, we've got another mammoth sized chapter ahead of us, but this is one a lot of you have been waiting for because – yup, that's right – Brandon and Stella are getting back together. _

_Enjoy!_

_

* * *

_**Chapter Twenty-One – Trouble in Paradise **

"You know what's weird? We're going from an exclusive, fully furnished villa located in the most expensive ski fields in the universe to sleeping on the ground at a campsite that doesn't even have a shower block, and we're choosing to do it in that order," Brandon noted sourly as he followed Sky through the thick undergrowth towards the campsite that had been reserved for them.

"Are you going to complain about everything?" Sky asked, looking back over his shoulder at his best friend while he walked. "First you were complaining about the fact that you don't think this constitutes a mission, then it was the price of everything in the snow field region and now you're complaining that you're going to have to sleep on the ground."

"I bet I won't be the only one," Brandon grumbled as they rounded the bend and came across their campsite. The campsite had been reserved for them by the school, and first impressions of it were that it looked pretty good. It had a small beach on a freshwater river that backed right onto a forest filled with rare monsters and magical creatures that were all under the protection of the Realm. Some of those creatures were carnivores, but as Timmy had already pointed out to them, the chances of them attacking were slim to none.

"Not bad," Sky grinned, placing his hands on his hips, but Brandon continued to look sour. They could hear Riven trailing them with the girls and Timmy was already there, over looking the supplies that had been dropped off earlier. "Hey Timmy, how's it going?"

"Okay, I think," Timmy answered before looking over his check list. "We've got the tents, the sleeping bags, food, cooking and eating utensils, water purifying tablets, an axe, first aid kit – "

"I love it how those two are right next to each other," Brandon grinned sadistically.

" – maps of the area, matches, torches, spare batteries, wet weather gear just in case, a beach umbrella for the girls, sun screen, fold out chairs and a few recreational items," Timmy read allowed before sighing loudly as he looked at the large pile of supplies. "I think that's everything."

"Oh!" Bloom's high pitch squeal suddenly filled the air as she and the rest of the girls stepped out onto the beach. All the girls – even Tecna who came from a realm which didn't have any wilderness let alone any camping grounds – looked excited to be there, but Stella did look somewhat less excited than the others. "It's beautiful!"

"There are so many rare plants here," Flora informed them all confidently despite the fact that she had only been in the area a matter of minutes. "It's incredible. Are we really staying here?"

"Yup. This is home, sweet home for the next two days," Sky grinned.

"Great. Where's the bathroom?" Stella asked.

"Er, down that path," Timmy pointed after checking the map. Stella gave him a forced little smile that was meant to express her thanks and vanished down the path.

"She's gonna freak when she finds out it's a pit dunny," Brandon muttered to Sky.

Seconds later, birds took to the air due to Stella's horrified scream.

* * *

It was well known that Riven had a conniving mind and that he had used it in the past to get him and his friend's things that circumstance or the law prohibited them. He had been able to get them DVD's and games months before they were due out, he had gotten into venues that had been deemed sold out and he had never let the age limit stand in the way of him obtaining alcohol for them. But none of his scheming had ever paid off as well as it did when he 'negotiated' his way into getting four jet-skis to help them patrol the water.

"Dude, I may have called you a dirty, conniving, villainous sneak in the past, but I'm glad you're my friend," Brandon grinned widely at Riven when they had paused in their racing for just a second to make sure that none of the girls had slipped off anywhere without them knowing.

"Thanks man," Riven replied, not insulted in the slightest. After all, he had been called worse.

"But are you sure you're going to be able to justify this to Saladin?" Sky asked. He liked having the jet-skis – no denying that – but he had his doubts to whether or not their teachers would understand the reasoning behind it. Saladin might look as though his attention to detail might sometimes fail him, but the old man was surprisingly focused for his age. And even if they did manage to slide something past their headmaster, it would be impossible to get it past Codatorta and Javelin.

"Of course I can. Look, our mission is to protect these pixies from any possible dangers that might present itself, right? So we'll need a way to patrol the water for any hidden dangers and I'm not exactly thrilled about the concept of swimming," Riven confessed.

"Typical city boy," Brandon commented slyly.

"He does have a pretty good point, Sky," Timmy backed Riven up. "I mean, lifesavers on popular beaches use jet-skis to patrol the water and if anything did happen, it would be a lot faster to reach whoever's drowning than swimming."

"And if we say it was your idea instead of mine, Saladin will accept it easier since for some reason he always thinks I have ulterior motives," Riven added, making their plan air tight.

"Well when you put it like that, it's almost like we had to do this," Sky finally agreed. "In the name of security, Red Fountain can only offer the very best."

"I love our school," Brandon smiled. "Race you guys?"

"You're on," Sky and Riven both said in unison, but Timmy declined.

"I'm gonna go get a drink," Timmy told them, before turning his jet-ski around and heading into shore. All the girls were sunbaking on the beach while quizzing each other and reading aloud from Teen Fairy or just idling chatting like girls do. When Timmy beached his jet-ski, he just managed to catch a bit of Stella nagging something about sun block when he stepped onto the store. The second he had both feet solidly on the sand, Layla – who had been watching the boy's enviously – jumped to her feet and made for Timmy's jet-ski.

"My turn!" the Princess of Tides called as she sped away from shore.

"You know, it's more polite if you ask," Brandon told her jestingly when she had made it out to where the others were.

"Well, in that case, would you boys like to have a little race?" Layla challenged politely.

"Yeah, like you'd have a chance," Riven _scoff_ed.

"Isn't that what you said when we were in the ski region?" Layla asked, and just like that, the challenged was on. But an hour and a half later when Bloom finally managed to get them to come in for some lunch, the boys were still yet to get a victory against Layla.

* * *

"Oh wow. You guys brought a volleyball kit?" Bloom asked after she had stumbled across it while rummaging through the supplies the boys had brought. "I remember playing this all the time on Earth with my family when we went away on holidays. It was like my favourite game we just to play with friends while we were waiting for the barbeque to be finished."

"I think that came as part of a deal with the tents and stuff," Timmy said as he watched Bloom drag the kit out. "We didn't even ask for it."

"Can we play? Please?" Bloom begged, and without an answer, she started to unpack the kit.

"Sure. I'm in," Musa said.

"Me too!" Flora seconded.

"I've never played before," Tecna confessed. "But I guess I'm game."

"For sure. We'll have teams and everything," Brandon suggested.

"Kiko can keep score!" Bloom volunteered as her little pet rabbit pulled out the score board.

"And I'll right a cheer!" Chatta announced, looking like she was ready to explode in team spirit.

"Are you going to paly, Stella?" Amore asked her bonded fairy. "I'll cheer for you."

"Sorry Amore. Count me out," Stella told her. "But if you want to cheer for something, you can cheer for me to get a good tan."

"Where'd Layla go?" Sky asked, looking around to try and spot the Princess of Tides. Layla had come in with them for lunch, but after that he couldn't remember seeing her. Guilt suddenly stabbed at him when he realised that he had been neglecting his duty, but Bloom had been telling him about when she had gone camping as a little girl and he had been too enthralled with her to notice any of the others. "I'm sure she'd want to play."

"She said she wanted to go for a small walk to stretch her legs," Brandon – who hadn't been distracted from his duty – informed his prince. "She said she wouldn't be long so we should start playing and she can join a team when she gets back."

The group was divided up so that Bloom, Sky, Timmy and Flora were on one team and Brandon, Tecna, Riven and Musa were on the other. Stella sunbaked, Kiko kept score and the pixies cheered for everyone. The teams were pretty evenly matched since Bloom, Sky, Brandon and Riven were all out to win while Flora, Timmy, Musa and Tecna were content with just having fun.

"I thought you guys had to be on guard duty," Musa said halfway through the game. She wasn't really complaining since it was a lot more fun when the boys dropped the whole serious routine, but they were getting graded on this and she didn't want to land the boys in any kind of trouble.

"This is what Codatorta calls 'Plain Clothes Security Detail'," Brandon explained. The boys had already thought of how this might affect their grade, and they had already come up with a way to talk themselves around it.

"Makes the enemy think our guard is down," Riven simplified.

"Well, your guard is down," Bloom grinned slyly, spiking the volley ball sharply so it hit the ground exactly halfway between Brandon and Riven, earning her team a point. "Yeah!"

"Nice one, Bloom," Sky congratulated. He nearly went to give her a quick, sideways hug, but then the no fraternisation rule popped up in his head, making him pause awkwardly. Sometimes, he really regretted enrolling in a military school.

"So when are we going to the hotel?" Stella suddenly asked from her place lounging in the sun. "I'm dying the check in and take a shower and hit some boutiques."

The four boys all exchanged a look which said that none of them wanted to be the one to inform her that there was no hotel, let alone boutiques. Fortunately, Layla chose that moment to return with firewood. "I don't think there is a hotel in this region."

"Okay if there's not a hotel where and I supposed to sleep and how am I supposed to stay warm?" Stella questioned, and again none of the boys wanted to answer. Luckily, there was Layla.

"That's what firewood's for," Layla told her in a tone at was borderline patronising. Layla seemed to sense that too, so she quickly changed to subject. "Why don't you go swim or something?"

Stella's honey golden eyes widened in horror. "Do you know how much I paid for this swimsuit?"

"Wait a minute Stella, so does that mean you can't get it wet?"

Stella shook her head. "Nah uh-uh."

"Er, okay. You're kidding, right?"

Again, Stella shook her head. "Nah uh-uh."

"So you just brought a swimsuit for how it looks?" Layla asked. She was the first daughter of Tides, and like anyone from that realm, she couldn't even consider the possibility that any outfit – even couture evening gown – couldn't get wet. "What kind of sense does that make?"

Stella got to her feet and glared at her friend. She wasn't really angry at Layla, but the Princess of Tides had pushed her buttons and she had to let of some steam. "It makes more sense than going on a stupid vacation where there's no hotel and you have to sleep in the dirt!" Stella snarled before turning on heel and stormed off, leaving behind a rather hurt looking Layla.

"I-I didn't mean . . . what I meant was . . ." Layla stammered. "It's a swimsuit for crying out loud!"

"Don't worry about it, Layla," Musa advised. "She didn't really mean anything by it. Stella just needs to cool off and then she'll be back to her usual self."

Everyone hoped that Musa was right, but Stella's bad mood continued all afternoon and well into that night when they were all sitting around toasting corncobs over the large campfire the boys had built that afternoon.

"I hope you all know that I'm getting eaten alive by mosquitoes here," Stella announced bitterly, slapping at her ankles in an effort to kill the little blood sucking insects. Wordless, Tecna passed her some insect repellent, which Stella applied sourly. "These things better not have malaria or some other sort of disease."

"I doubt it. This realm spent billions eradicating all kinds of diseases in this area in ordered to increase tourism," Timmy informed her as Stella tossed the repellent away and hugged her legs.

"Well, that explain why the lift tickets were so expensive," Musa grinned.

"So you guys, what's on the agenda for tomorrow?" Sky asked.

"Who really cares?" Stella spat moodily.

"I wonna go explore deeper into the forest," Flora said, acting as if Stella hadn't said anything. "I heard there's all sorts of unique plants and creatures in this realm."

"Well, I was thinking I might make a postcard to send to my dad," Musa told everyone, holding the camera that the girls had been using to take pictures with the whole trip.

"Vacationing young ladies should always send postcard to their families," Tune agreed.

Bloom seemed taken with the idea. After all, it had been ages since she had sent a letter to her family on Earth since she'd always just call them if she wanted to talk. "Hey! We can use an art and craft spell."

"Yeah except . . . er . . . there's no magic in this realm," Layla reminded her. Stella groaned miserably at the reminder of her magic-free existence.

"We're gonna had to write our 'rents the old school way; with pen and paper and stuff," Musa concluded. "It'll be fun. Layla can take pictures and we can cut up the Teen Fairy magazines to make collages."

"I haven't done that since elementary school," Bloom admitted, looking even more excited about the idea now.

One person who couldn't be less excited about the plans for tomorrow was Riven, who was seriously considering slamming his head against the rock he was sitting on in an effort to rid himself of the mind numbing pain that this conversation gave him. "Excuse me for changing the subject, but isn't anyone else annoyed that we have to provide twenty-four hour security so they can play arts and crafts and hang out on the beach?" Riven asked, causing Tune to _huff_.

"It's twenty-six hours," Timmy corrected. "This planets rotation takes twenty-six hours."

"Oh, that makes it much better," Riven growled sarcastically. "Two more hours of extra artsy fun in a day. That's fantastic."

"I'm with Riven. This trip blows," Stella agreed, causing several of her friends to exchanged worried glances at each other.

"Stell," Bloom started in an effort to get her best friend to lighten up a bit. "I know camping isn't your thing, but if you give it a chance I'm sure – "

"I'm not going to give it a chance because I know that I am never going to like camping. Sleeping outside in the dirt, getting eaten alive by insects and using a bathroom that is literally just a hole in the ground is not my idea of a good time. I'm a princess for crying out loud."

"You're not the only princess here, Stella," Layla reminded her, her tone slightly acidic.

"Yeah, but Bloom didn't know she was a princess till last year, Musa's disowned for the throne and you actually like this stuff which is just plain weird to me," Stella said, getting to her feet. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed in an effort to try and sleep through this hell."

No one tried to stop her as she left. Bloom and Musa both looked upset and insulted about the callous way Stella had talked about their rank and everyone else seemed uncomfortable at the moody way Stella had been acting this whole trip. Layla, however, seemed to be the most upset because she kept staring at the ground.

"Stella didn't mean it," Flora told her gently. "She just not used to this kind of trip."

"Yeah, I know," Layla said, but her eyes remained fixed on the ground. It wasn't long after that that the group decided to call it a night and all headed off to their tents.

* * *

The Resort Realm's camping region was home to a large variety of monsters and creatures. There were hunter trolls, herblasaur, maned wolves, sky scorpions and dragadons just to name a few. And even though there was a good mix of carnivores, omnivores and herbivores, the number of attacks on humans from these creatures were sim to none due to the fact that the rangers in these areas spent a lot of time conditioning the creatures from young ages so that they got used to humans and learnt that they were not prey. None the less, the boys organised a night watch so that at least one of them was awake on the unlikely chance that something did happen. Sky had pulled first watch, so when everyone went to sleep he stayed up with his sword at the ready, just in case. He didn't think that anything was going to happen, but he wasn't in any position to make a call on that.

He spent most of his watch time staring up at the stars. The palace back on Eraklyon was too close to the capital city for the stars to be very bright, and back at Red Fountain, the City of Magix was bright enough to leech the light away from the sky. Here, however, the closest residence to their campsite was a ranger station, and that was over an hours drive away so the stars were incredibly bright, and there were _thousands_ of them.

Sky was still transfixed when a deep, roaring sound filled the air. At first, Sky tensed in alarm, but when that roar was answered with a low, mournful sounding roar, he realised that it wasn't an attack; it was two herblasaurs cooing at each other. He stood there in the dark, enjoying the stars and the herblasaur serenade when he heard someone approaching him from behind. Far from alarmed, Sky looked over his shoulder and watched as Bloom made it to his side. She had been woken up from the roaring, and as a foreigner to this part of the universe, she had been worried.

"Herblasaurs," Sky told her. He knew Flora had told her all about the creatures in this area so she would know that they were relatively harmless.

"Oh," Bloom said, looking a bit more relaxed.

"According to our recon, they only eat plants. Nothing you worry about ma'am."

"Are they . . . um . . . saying anything?" Bloom asked, realising halfway through her question how silly it might sound.

Sky grinned, not caring how silly it sounded. "I don't speak herblasaur."

Bloom seemed to appreciate his humour, but when she turned her attention back to the herblasaurs roaring, her humour dropped. "They sound so sad and lonely. I wonder why."

"Maybe they just miss the ones they love," Sky suggested. "You know I read somewhere that the male herblasaur stands guard to make sure that the female herblasaur can get a good night's sleep."

"He stays up all night?"

"He likes it because he knows that the one he cares about is happy, safe and peaceful," Sky told her, looking down at her softly. A gentle smile graced its way across Bloom's face, and it was enough to make Sky's stomach flip-flop.

"Goodnight, Sky," Bloom smiled, turning to head back to her tent to try and find some sleep.

"You sleep tight, Bloom."

It was another hour and a half before anyone else ventured out of the tents, and by then Sky's focus had dropped considerably. His blue eyes had started itching from tiredness and no matter what he tried he couldn't seem to stop his eyelids from dropping in slow, lazy blinks. Yawning became more and more frequent and finally, Sky stumbled into a mistake that only a Red Fountain freshman would make; he looked at the fire.

Lulled into a dreamy pleasant state by the elegant, dancing flames, Sky was so hypnotised that he didn't even notice someone approach him until a strong hand grasped his shoulder, almost making him jump out of his skin.

"Gods, Riven," Sky gasped, placing a hand on his chest and feeling his rapid heart beat. "You scared the crap out of me."

"Uh-huh. Go to bed," Riven ordered, not interested in making any kind of conversation at this hour of the morning.

"I wasn't asleep," Sky quickly assured him, even though Riven never asked.

"Don't care," Riven said, positioning himself so that he was sitting on the ground with his lower back leaning against one of the logs around the fire with his long legs stretched out in front of him. He had his back to the fire and his eyes on the bushland that surrounded them.

"I mean it, I wasn't sleeping," Sky said again.

"And seriously, I don't care," Riven repeated. "What do you thinks gonna happen? A herblasaur gonna creep up on us during the night and eat Flora? C'mon, Sky, you know there's nothing dangerous in this realm. Even the maned wolves don't attack people. Timmy gave you the stats; you're more likely to get killed by a coconut than attacked by an animal or monster in this region (1). There's only one reason we have a night watch is because it's what we got to do as part of our grade. There is nothing to be worried about."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Sky agreed, kicking the ground lightly, not aware that the Trix had arrived in the Resort Realm not long ago.

"Of course I am. Now go to sleep. I got it from here."

* * *

The night passed without incident. However, the following morning started to go bad shortly after breakfast. As the boys finished eating and cleaning up the breakfast utensils, the Winx Club sat in the warm morning sun making postcards for their parents like Musa had suggested the night before. The only person not present was Stella, who – despite being the one to go to bed first – was the only one to sleep in.

"These pictures are going to be great," Layla told the other girls after taking one particularly cute shot of Bloom and Lockette for Bloom's parents back on Earth. Each fairy was decorating their postcards in their own unique way; Tecna had written part of her note to her parents in binary code, Flora was using leaves and flowers from the area and Bloom was covering her card in cut out pictures of all her friends.

"I can't think of what to write," Musa confessed, her brows knotted in thought.

"Do something in verse," Bloom suggested. "Your dad will get a kick that."

"It's been ages since I actually wrote a letter by hand," Tecna confessed, and she looked like she was thoroughly enjoying herself. "It's fun."

"Do you want me to snap a picture of you?" Musa asked Layla, who so far had been the only one taking photos, so there was no real evidence that she was even there. "I can."

"No, that's alright Musa," Layla declined. "I'm pretty much just getting some shots of the scenery."

"Hey, I'd love it if you'd come with me later and got some photos of me with the plants and animals," Flora said. She had been eagre to do that ever since she had arrived at the camping ground, but the day before had been spent hanging out with her friends.

"Sure thing," Layla nodded as Stella wondered out of the tent. "Good morning sunshine. You get enough sleep?"

"I didn't mean to over sleep. I'm not used to this sun's patterns," Stella said, flinching at the brightness of the morning sun. She was no longer snapping at them, but she still didn't seem too thrilled about camping. But then again, the day was still young.

"We're going on a wild life expedition later," Flora informed her cheerfully.

"Sounds like fun Flora," Stella said with very little enthusiasm. "Count me out of that one, okay?"

"Why don't you come make a postcard for your mum and dad?" Layla asked, trying to include Stella in what they were doing. The Princess of Solaria and the Princess of Tides had had a bit of tension the day before, and Layla was determined not the let that happen again. "I'll take the picture for ya."

Unfortunately, she couldn't have picked a worse sentence to say to Stella if she was trying. "It's _postcards,_ Layla. My parents are separated."

Everyone looked incredibly uncomfortably, but none more so than Layla. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. Stella."

But Stella chose to ignore her friend and sat down away from everyone to have a cup of tea.

"Boy, Layla put her foot in that one," Brandon sighed regretfully to Timmy as Bloom explained to Layla about the current situation for the Royal Family of Solaria.

"I feel sorry for Layla," Timmy admitted. He would never tell Layla that, but he felt safe saying it to Brandon. "It's like she wants to let people in and be open with the rest of the girls, but then something like this happens and she shuts down."

"Well, it's not easy when Stella's in this mood."

"Maybe you should talk to her?" Timmy suggested.

"Layla?"

"Stella."

"Why? It's not like she'd listen."

"Brandon."

"What?"

Timmy stared at his friend for a second before sighing heavily. "Nothing."

"I'm gonna go . . . walk or something," Layla suddenly announced, getting to her feet and heading for the path that led deeper into the forest.

"What about our expedition?" Flora asked. She had wanted to go with Layla since she knew that the water fairy had not had much fun the day before, and she wanted to try and cheer her up. Layla, however, just kept walking.

"Layla wait!" Tecna called. "Hang on a minute. Is everything alright?"

"Fine," Layla assured them, but the tone of her voice said otherwise.

* * *

"So, we're still undecided," Sky summarised. He and the other members of his squad were keeping guard while lounging in deck chairs in the warm mid-morning sun, and for the last thirty-five minutes, they had been debating an issue that none of them could make a solid opinion on; had they or had they not been assigned a good mission for their end of year assessment?

"Well, we all agreed that this whole trip had been a complete waste of our skills – except of course our snow sports skills," Brandon recapped helpfully.

"But it is nice to finally be able to spend some time with the girls," Sky pointed out again.

"Yeah, but we have to keep a three foot radius from them at all times," Riven reminded them for the fourth time. "Not to mention it's dull as hell out there."

"But then again, it is nice to just relax every now and then instead of running around, trying to save the universe. Plus it's a nice change to be outside," Timy said, stretching himself out and taking pleasure in the warmth of the sun. "Yup, this sure beats sitting at a computer."

"What was that?" Sky asked, sapping his head around to stare at Timmy. He was surprised the computer geeks tongue didn't fall off after such blasphemy.

"Timster's feeling the call of the wild," Riven smirked.

"Soon he'll be taming hydras and wrestling trolls bare handed," Brandon joked.

"You know, there are hunter trolls in this region," Riven pointed out, spotting a chance to make Brandon's joke into a reality. "We could find one and bait it so Timmy could fight it."

"We're not baiting a troll," Sky instantly vetoed. "Did you forget how much fun we had chasing that troll through the Black Mud Swamps last year? There's no way I'm going through that again."

"Oh, c'mon. It's just a little entertainment."

"No."

"So we're s'posed to just sit around and watch the girls as they . . . what are they actually doing?" Riven asked.

"I think they're planning on giving Tecna a make-over," Sky said, watching as Bloom talked to Stella. He couldn't be sure of what they were saying, but Stella turned and headed for the path that Layla had vanished down an hour ago. Sky could only hope that Stella was leaving in order to look for Layla so she could apologise to her and not because Bloom had said something that caused her to storm off. "Hang on, we better find out what's going on."

"Where'd Stella go?" Flora was asking Bloom when the boys had made it over to the girls.

"She went to go find Layla," Bloom informed everyone.

"Wow. Even the temptation of a make-over couldn't make her stay," Musa noted.

"Should we go with her and help her look?" Sky asked.

"No. Stella wants to apologise to Layla and I think those two need some time to talk. I think it's best to just give them some privacy for now," Bloom suggested. The girls abandoned the idea of the make-over due to the fact that Tecna had only agreed to it in an effort to cheer Stella up, and with Stella and Layla both gone, the girls did what all girls do best; gossip about their friends.

"Well I feel that Layla hides how she really feels sometimes," Bloom said about an hour later. The girls were lounging in the sun talking while the boys hung around not really contributing to the conversation.

"And you think that Stella doesn't?" Flora questioned.

"What do you mean by that?" Amore asked, feeling as if she represented Stella in this little gossip session.

Lockette's big eyes had widened in shock at Flora's words. "Stella lies to you?"

"No sweetie, it doesn't mean she lies," Bloom assured her pixie.

"She doesn't always tell you how she's feeling, that's all," Flora corrected.

"I love talking about my feelings!" Chatta informed them all loudly. "In fact, did I tell you guys that – "

"We've been discussing this for an hour," Tecna interrupted. Normally she wasn't the type of fairy to do that, but she had learnt over the last year that if you didn't interrupt Chatta, the little Pixie of Pep could talk for hours on end, and Tecna was getting a bit tried of this topic of conversation. "Can we please move on?"

"I'm with Tecna," Riven instantly agreed, resisting the urge to cry in pure relief. He had been listening to the girls go on and on about what they thought Layla was feeling and what they thought Stella was feeling and what they thought Layla thought Stella was feeling until he was certain his ears were going to bleed and that desire to his hit head against something hard had returned. He had tried to drown it out by focusing his attention on a book but they still got into his head. There was just no escaping it. And of course there was no way he could suggest a change in conversation because that would make him look like an insensitive jerk. But then Tecna brought it up on her own and he felt like he could kiss her. "You girls talk way too much about your little emotions."

Exhausted by their gossiping, Riven decided it would probably be best to put a little bit of distance between him and the girls to avoid him letting loose the deluge of what his thoughts on the whole Layla and Stella and why they're fighting episode were. Unfortunately, Musa had gotten to her feet and followed after him.

"Riven!" she called before falling into step beside him. "Our little emotions?"

"You know what I mean."

"No, I don't."

"What's so great about sitting around and talking about your feelings?"

"Well, I – " Musa tried to explain, but Riven wasn't going to let her finish. If there was one thing worse than talking about feelings, it was talking about what was so great about talking about feelings.

"You never do."

"What does that – "

"See you later," Riven brushed her off before heading into the forest. He was fed up with the girls and all the dramas they seemed to magic up out of nowhere, so he needed to get some space or else he'd lose his mind. He figured he'd do a perimeter check before having to face no doubt another gossip session. He heard Musa let out an irritated growl behind him, but he chose to ignore it.

Meanwhile, Brandon had been watching the whole thing, and when Musa stormed off into another direction of the forest, he got to his feet and moved after her.

* * *

Riven was still tense and irritated after the never ending story about Stella and Layla's emotions, so it took him several minutes before he really took notice of where he was going. He had justified him walking off like that as a perimeter check, but when he finally looked round it dawned on him that he had actually walked further out into the forest then was actually needed.

He was just about to double back when he looked down and spotted several animal tracks. There was nothing unusual about that given the fact that this was a wildlife reserve, but what struck Riven as odd was that they were all travelling the same direction.

"Hmm. That's weird," Riven said aloud to himself before tossing the book he had in his hands aside. After all, wasn't as if it was his book. Without any hesitation, Riven followed the tracks, and it wasn't long until he heard some very familiar voices.

* * *

Brandon was an undeniably good student at Red Fountain, but if there was one subject he admitted that he wasn't very good at – besides Battle History – it was stealth. The talkative squire just wasn't that good at keeping himself silent, so it was no real surprise that Musa with her sonar ears heard him when he accidentally stepped on a dry twig which snapped under his weight.

"Who's there?" Musa demanded to know, her voice sounding startled.

"It's just me Musa," Brandon said, holding his hands up to show he was unarmed. The fact that he had been able to sneak up on Musa this close before she noticed him was testament to how distracted and trouble she was since Brandon was sure that his stealth skills hadn't improved that much. "Sorry 'bout that."

Musa relaxed and let out a relieved sigh. Brandon could tell that she was not as loosened up as what Ms. Faragonda would have wanted out of this all expenses paid trip and Brandon was pretty sure he knew why. "So what's up?" Musa asked.

"I thought you could use an interpreter," Brandon offered but when he got a confused look off Musa he quickly added, "For Riven."

Musa's navy eyes widened in surprise, something Brandon really didn't understand. After all, who did Musa and Riven think they were fooling? Their feelings for each other were so obvious to everyone else and yet they still felt it was necessary to go through this whole denial phase. "What are you talking about?"

"When he starts staying 'what's so great about feelings' it's all Riven talk for 'please stop talking about feelings. They scare me'," Brandon explained. Riven was a hard person to decipher at the best of times, but over the years Brandon had gotten pretty good at working out what was going on inside that screwed up little head of Riven's, though he was certain that Riven would never put it in those exact words.

Musa nodded slightly and Brandon could tell that she understood what he was saying, but instead of looking relieved like Brandon thought she would have, her expression turned to one of irritation. "Why can't he just stay that then?"

"It's not that different for you always playing it cool," Brandon pointed out.

"Me? I don't do that. I'm up front," Musa said even though both of them knew it was a lie. Musa was constantly putting up a tough front and acting like everything was fine when in actual fact she was suffering in silence. When Riven had hooked up Darcy last year, Musa had assured everyone that she had never actually liked Riven in the first place and couldn't care less who he dated when in actual fact everyone could tell that she still liked him and was completely heartbroken at what he did.

"Have you ever just told Riven that you like him?" Brandon asked.

"Well, not directly but . . ." Musa trailed off, shifting nervously.

"So what's stopping you?" Brandon asked with an encouraging grin. "I think he went that way."

Musa looked off in the direction Brandon was pointing in, chewing her lower lip nervously, but her eyes were glowing in a way that told Brandon that she had already made up her mind about what she was going to do. "Thanks."

"Anytime," Brandon said, turning to head back to camp, but then Musa stopped him.

"If you ever want me to return the favour, I'll be glad to do it," Musa offered. Brandon paused and looked back at her, not really sure what to make of what she had just said. "You know, like an interpreter for Stella."

"Oh, yeah, thanks but no thanks," Brandon said, and after forcing a quick smile, he turned to leave again. But once again, Musa stopped him.

"You know Stella misses you, right?" she asked, and Brandon turned back around to face her.

"What are you talking about? We see each other all the time. Hell, we're on a week long vacation together. There's really no distance between the two of us."

"Physically, perhaps, but let's face it; you guys aren't acting the way you normally do, and that's what she misses."

"Then she can come fix it."

"What are you angry at, Brandon?" Musa asked the question Brandon had actually been wondering the last few months. "The Jared thing? Bran, I dealt with that and if anyone should still angry at Stella over that it's me. I don't need you to fight my battles Brandon, especially when it's a battle that I don't think even needs mentioning let alone fighting. And you're damn lucky Riven doesn't know that that's the reason you and Stella are fighting. He and Stella might not be the best of friends, but he knows you like her which is why he puts up with her like he does. And if he knew you were acting this childish, he'd kick your ass. So stop hiding behind what happened between me and Jared and tell me what is this all about?"

Brandon stared at her in a strange combination of shame and shock, before lowering his head sheepishly to stare at his feet. "She didn't listen to me when I asked her not to set you and Jared up."

"You're ruining the relationship you have with Stella over a bit of bruised pride?"

"It's not that. It's just . . . I dunno. I wonder if she acted this way with her other boyfriends. You know, the ones who were princes and not a commoner like me."

Musa let out a frustrated sigh. She felt sorry for Brandon, but at the same time she wanted to hit him over the head for being so stupid. "Gods Brandon, how many times does she have to tell you that she doesn't care that you're a squire and not a prince? You've got to get past this insecurity because it's completely ridiculous."

"It's not insecurity, okay? I'm not like that. It's just that I always feel as if I'm not good enough for her and that she'd rather be with someone more . . ." Brandon trailed off when he realised that he was not making a good case for himself. This was just like the time earlier in the year when Sky insisted he wasn't the jealous type.

"Brandon, you're being a fool."

"I know," Brandon finally admitted. Everyone had been telling him that for months now, but this was the first time that he actually listened to what they were actually saying. He had spent all that time being angry, and now all his felt was shame for the way he had been acting. Sure, it had been Stella who hadn't listened to him, but he had been the one who had let it drag out and escalate to this point. He had nearly ruined to most important thing to him, and he had been too stupid to see it. "Thanks Musa."

"Anytime," Musa smiled at him, before turning and slipping off in the direction Brandon had pointed her before, leaving the squire alone with his thoughts.

* * *

"So how many of these things do we have to make?" Stormy asked Icy sharply as they finished up a set of magical traps on the ground. Apparently their gloomix wasn't affected in this realm, allowing them to use their magic.

"Just a few more, so quit your witching," Icy snapped.

The two Trix sisters had been setting traps all over the place, and Riven had been watching them, hidden amongst the foliage of the forest around him. He knew he needed to warn the others, but he didn't want to take his eyes off Icy since she was no doubt the one calling the shots and Riven still didn't know what they were up to.

"Are these things gonna work?" Stormy asked, unable to keep her tongue still. "I mean, I can still see them."

"Of course you can see them. It's selective magic. If you know that the traps are there, you can sort of see them, and that goes double if you were there while they're made," Icy reminded her sister. "But those pixies and their boy toys aren't gonna see this coming."

Riven didn't like the idea of leaving Icy and Stormy to do whatever they wanted, but he knew he need to find Darcy. The Trix were planning something and he'd have a better idea of what they were up to if he knew all their movement. There was a piece missing in this puzzle, and he believed that once he knew what Darcy was doing, he might be able to guess at what might come next. As silently as he could, Riven slipped away from the two witches, but he could still hear them talking for some time.

"What if Darcy's plan doesn't work?" Stormy was asking. She seemed sadistically excited about whatever they were going to do, but at the same time she was sceptical. Sneaking around and manipulating events was the way Darcy liked to work, while Stormy preferred the easy way of just tearing everything apart with the fury of a tornado.

"It was my plan Stormy, let's get that straight."

"What if _your_ plan doesn't work?"

"Don't worry. Just keep setting traps," Icy ordered, but by that stage her voice was so faint that Riven nearly missed it.

Riven found Darcy a short distance away, but when he stumbled across her, he was still confused. His ex was using her hypnotic powers to spell the monsters in the region under her control, but what she planned to do with them after that was yet to be seen.

"Dat's a good baby," Darcy gushed in a patronising baby talk as she scratched under the chin of a maned wolf that she now had control of. "Now go do mummy proud."

With a deep growl, the wolf and a few of its pack mates turned and bolted off into the forest. Riven wasn't aware of it at the time, but those wolves would eventually pick up the scent of Layla and Stella, and attack them just like Darcy ordered them too. Darcy smiled wickedly as they left, then turned her attention onto spelling other monsters.

Riven was still contemplating whether he should stay and keep an eye on the Trix or head back to camp to warn everyone, when he heard something that made his heart beat rapidly in panic; someone calling his name.

"Riven."

"_Shh!_ Quiet!" Riven hissed as quietly and as urgently as he could. He knew the voice without looking, but it did little to lessen the shock when he glanced over his shoulder and saw Musa sneaking up alongside him. The last time they had spoken had ended with her growling in frustration, so he didn't understand why she had trekked all the way out here to find him.

"Why? What's going on?" Musa asked, crouching down next to him. She leaned forward to try and see what he was looking at and in order not to over balance she was forced to put her hand on his shoulder. Her intoxicating scent suddenly flooded Riven sense, clouding his mind and with her body so temptingly close to his it took all of Riven's will power just to stay focus. Musa didn't seem to be having any of those issues. Instead, she just seemed utterly shocked at seeing Darcy in the Resort Realm.

"I'm not sure what she's up to," Riven admitted to Musa. "The others are building traps."

"Icy and Stormy?"

Riven nodded. "We gotta warn everyone that they're here."

"Yeah," Musa agreed.

"Come on," Riven said, pushing himself off his stomach until he was on his hands and knees. "Let's go."

"No Riven, wait. You should stay here," Musa suggested, and Riven immediately saw where her line of thinking was going.

"So I can figure out where the traps are."

"Exactly. Oh and also I like you. A lot."

The simple, causal way she said, as if she was just slipping it in as an after thought, was what floored Riven the most. He wasn't stupid. He knew that there had been something going on between them from the day they had met, but he had always thought that Musa would be too shy to ever come right out and admit her feelings and he was too much of an emotionally unavailable mess to ever make anything official. And then Musa went and blindsided him by opening up a can of worm like that. Riven didn't know whether he should be happy or terrified. All he knew was that her simple statement was enough to make his heart pound rapidly, his breathing become shallow, the palms of his hands sweat and his mind go blank as an odd sense of panic set in.

How the hell was he supposed to respond to that?

"Don't panic. You don't have to tell me how much you like me. You can do it later," Musa – who must have somehow sensed what he was thinking – told him with a wink. Despite how freaked out he was, Riven couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed at what she said. Since when did she put words in his mouth? With an impish little smile that Riven found to be absolutely adorable, Musa snuck off to warn the others. "Good luck."

Riven watched her go with whirlpool of emotions before turning to look back at Darcy.

When he had first met his ex, Riven could remember being immediately attracted to her sexually. When he had first laid eyes on Musa, he had felt that same attraction, but at the same time it went so much further than just physical, which was both terrifying and enticing. And despite everything that scared him, Riven couldn't stop a sly grin spread across his face as he moved off to watch Icy and Stormy lay some more traps.

"Damn pixie."

* * *

_You're ruining the relationship you have with Stella over a bit of bruised pride?_

Musa's voice kept repeating itself over in Brandon's head as he wondered aimlessly throughout the forest, just thinking things over to himself.

_Gods Brandon, how many times does she have to tell you that she doesn't care that you're a squire and not a prince? _

Stella had told him time and time again that she didn't care that he was a squire and she was a princess. Her parents had both been high society and their relationship had ended in separation, so she had decided that she was going to base her relationships on her emotions rather than on appearances.

_You've got to get past this insecurity because it's completely ridiculous._

Brandon hated to admit it, but he was insecure about the social gap in between the two of them. She had met him when she thought he was a prince, so right from the get go he wasn't sure if she had liked him or the rank. And even when the truth about his identity came out and Stella assured him she didn't care that he wasn't a prince, Brandon felt he wasn't good enough for her. He didn't like this side of him, but he couldn't seem to stop it. He was normally a cocky, self-confident kind of guy, but Stella was his kryptonite. He'd drop everything for her, and his greatest nightmare was that she was just involved with him for a lark. As something to pass the time and shock her parents until she decided to settle down and find herself a prince. Brandon adored Stella, and he had let his fear of losing that almost destroy everything he ever had or could have had with her.

"I'm a bloody idiot," Brandon grumbled, running his hand through his hair. He knew he had been stupid, but he was going to fix it.

Turning on heel, Brandon headed back in the direction he was fairly certain the campsite was in, but then he saw something that caught his eye. It was a small flare that had been shot up into the air like a firework, but there was a unique fracture of the light that made it unmistakably sunlight magic.

"Stella!" Brandon shouted in alarm, breaking into a flat out run in the direction of where the flare had gone up. He was actually closer to where Stella was in the forest than he would have been if he had stayed at camp, so he was the first to come across Stella and Layla, and he was horrified to discover them surrounded by a pack of maned wolves and a big blue hunter troll. He was well aware that his stupidity over the last few months may have been enough for him to lose Stella forever, but even if she didn't want to be with him anymore there was no way he was going to let anything happen to her. He loved her enough to let her go if that was what she wanted, but he was going to protect her with all the strength he had regardless of how she felt about him.

Without any hesitation, Brandon jumped in between the girls and the monsters with his broadsword at the ready. With a well aimed kick, Brandon collected one of the wolves right in the ribs. The wolf landed in a heap, completely winded and unable to fight any more.

"Brandon!" Stella wailed, her honey gold eyes wide and fearful.

With fierce determination, Brandon slashed his sword in front of the face of the other wolf, who backed off slightly when it couldn't find a way around the blade. Finally, fuelled by desperation, the wolf leapt forward but Brandon easily threw it off of him.

"Behind you, Snookums!" Stella called, and when Brandon looked over his shoulder, he was glad she had. The huge hunter troll was running at him from behind, and clenched in its big, blue fist was a club. Swinging his sword around, Brandon managed to cut right through the centre of the club, rendering the piece the troll still had in its hand too small for it to be of any use to it. The top half which Brandon sliced off, however, was just the right size for the Red Fountain student. Grabbing the piece of club in mid-air, Brandon used it to slam the troll in the face, knocking it out cold.

"Well so much for that guy," Brandon said, a little shocked that the troll had dropped that easily. Not that he was really complaining, mind you, but still.

"Brandon! That was awesome!" Stella cheered, running towards her boyfriend with her arms out stretched. Brandon didn't refuse her advances in the slightest as she collided with him and wrapped her arms around him. "Oh! Are you okay?"

"Well, my lips kind of hurt," Brandon admitted to her as she hugged him tightly and it suddenly occurred to him how much he missed the way her small body fitted against his. Loosening her hold on him just enough so that she could stand on her toes, Stella reached her face up to press her lips chastely against his. It might have lacked the intensity that some of their kisses in the past had had, but it gave Brandon a feeling that he hadn't felt in a long time. "There. That's much better."

"I'm so glad you showed up. I thought we were goners," Stella confessed to him. Whether it was because she heard something or just sensed it, Stella suddenly looked around and noticed that most of the others had arrived at the clearing. Sky and Timmy had shown up, as well as all the other girls, and Stella suddenly looked bashful. "Um, when did everyone else get here?"

"I don't know but I'm grad they're here. We've got company," Brandon said as a couple of massive herblasaurs emerged out of the trees. Everyone knew that these creatures were supposed to be rather placid, but there was something about their eyes that suggested that they were not to be trusted at this time. All the girls screamed and the monsters advanced. "Let's get out of here before we become lunch!"

* * *

Riven wasn't much of a fan of stake outs.

He knew that they were an important means of gathering information, but he hated not being able to act or prevent anything. So far all he had done was watch Icy and Stormy create traps while Darcy spell a bunch of creatures to do her bidding. Darcy had already sent a whole bunch of monsters under her control out into the forest and Riven had no idea whether they had found his friends or not. He'd admit that he was worried about his friend's safety, and that concern grew when he remembered that Musa had gone off alone so she could warn the others. A thousand horrible thoughts about what might happen to the pixie if she ran across some of those monsters entered Riven's head, and they were almost enough to make him break cover and go after her.

But Red Fountain's strict schooling on never leaving your post and forgo your duty kept Riven still, though he almost forgot about his schooling when a loud roar ripped through the forest.

"Did you hear that?" Icy asked her two sisters.

"Sounds like our little pets just found the fairies," Stormy grinned wickedly.

Darcy looked like she was enjoying this immensely. "Hopefully they can force them into our little traps."

"I love watching fairies squirm in net," Icy almost purred.

Cautiously, Riven pushed himself off the forest floor and started moving away from the witches. There was nothing more he could learn out of them and he was pretty sure he knew what they were up to; they were going to use the monsters to drive him and his friends into their traps, though what they planned to do from there remained a mystery.

One thing was for sure but; the Trix didn't seem like the catch and release kind of people.

* * *

"Run!" Sky urged as he and the others legged it through the forest. The herblasaurs were gaining on them – no surprise when you compared the distance just one of their strides covered against the stride of the humans – and several other monsters had joined the chase. A hunter troll ran alongside the herblasaurs, and behind the galloped several maned wolves as a few sky scorpions flew above them.

"This doesn't make sense!" Flora gasped between breaths. "These creatures are gentle! They eat plants!"

"Maybe they're territorial," Timmy suggested, since he couldn't think of any other reason why all the creatures would suddenly attack them. There had been reports in the past about rogue hunter trolls and maned wolves turning on people, but they were rare and there was absolutely nothing about any herblasaurs suddenly becoming vicious.

"Sky! Come on!" Brandon shouted, stopping swiftly and turning to face the monsters with his sword out in front of him. He didn't care that the herblasaur completely dwarfed him. He needed to give the girls sometime to gain some ground.

Sky turned to take on the hunter troll who was armed with a club, but it was Chatta who ended up getting to it first. With a bright burst of energy, Chatta sent a blast of magic right down onto the trolls head "How do you like that, you big blue bully?"

"Chatta no!" Flora cried. "Be careful!"

As Timmy and the girls ran further ahead, Sky and Brandon were forced backwards by the advancing monsters. The two Eraklyians may have been some of the best swordsmen in their class, but they were simply out numbered and couldn't stop this threat.

"We can't hold them off forever," Sky admitted, stepping backwards.

"Just run Sky!" Brandon told him, giving up. "Come on!"

Sky agreed that they didn't stand a chance up against this number of monsters, and when he saw a sky scorpion swoop down at his girlfriend, he felt his heart skip a beat. "Bloom! Look out!"

"Huh?" Bloom said cluelessly, but when she looked up she saw what Sky was warning her about and screamed. Sky struggled to get to his girlfriend in time, but before he could get there, he heard Musa shouting.

"Go charmix!"

A bright flash of white light suddenly filled that area, and when it cleared they all discovered Musa at the centre of it and she had somehow managed to transform into her winx form. Without offering any explanation to how she managed to do that, Musa took flight and aimed an attack at one of the wolves who had caught up with the group.

"Maximum Volume!" Musa shouted, throwing her attack down at the wolf. It hit it head on and knocked the wolf senseless. When it regained its wits, the wolf wisely chose to run off rather than stay and fight the fairy. None of the boys could explain how Musa had managed to transform since it was their understanding that only the pixies with their positive energy could access their magic, but then they noticed a new broach and handbag (2) tied around Musa's waist that had not been there before.

"Musa! You got a charmix!" Bloom squealed, noticing the same thing as the boys. "That's awesome!"

"Thanks," Musa grinned, pushing a button on the discman-like bag that was now tied around her waist. Strong sound waves erupted from that bag and they were powerful enough to knock the flying scorpions right out of the sky and cause the other monsters to back off a bit. As soon as the danger had passed for a minute, Musa's power gave out and she transformed back, but she had more important things to worry about now. "Guys listen, the creatures are being controlled by the witches!"

"They're here?" Lockette gasped.

"Well that explains things," Bloom grumbled before noticing that the monsters were daring to start advancing again now that Musa had transformed back. "Come on!"

"How do you know it's the witches?" Timmy asked Musa as they ran.

"I've seen them!" Musa panted, looking over her shoulder at the monsters that were chasing them. "Darcy's got them hypnotised! I saw her do it!"

"What do the witches want?" Flora asked. "Is the forth piece of the Codex here?"

"No! It's in Pixie Village!" Bloom answered.

"Maybe they're just messing with us?" Musa suggested.

Stella agreed. "Trying to get us while we have no magic!"

"Stop!" a harsh voice suddenly commanded, and everyone skidded to a stop as someone stepped out onto the path in front of them.

"Riven," Musa breathed in relief.

Riven had been slinking silently through the forest in search of his friends when he had discovered them running full tilt towards one of the traps Icy and Stormy had created. The traps were as plain as day to him, but for some reason none of his friends could see them. He didn't understand how none of them could have spotted the traps, until he remember that Stormy had been wondering the same thing while they made them and Icy had explain how selective magic only showed itself to those who knew it was there.

His friends didn't even know they were being herded.

"The creatures are trying to force you into a trap up ahead," Riven explained simply since he could hear the monsters getting closer.

"And how do you know that?" Sky asked. He didn't mean for him to sound so mistrusting, but Darcy had managed to bewitch half the forest. How did he know she hadn't turned Riven back into her puppet?

"I was spying on the witches. I saw them setting it."

"Okay big monsters chasing us," Stella pressed. "Talk later."

"We can avoid the trap. Just step where I step," Riven ordered, moving off into the traps. Musa followed after him without hesitation while the others weren't so quick to comply.

"What are you guys waiting for?" Bloom suddenly asked. "Let's go!"

"Are you sure there are traps here?" Layla asked Riven sceptically as they made their way through the traps.

Riven rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to swear at her. "Yes Layla, I'm sure."

"Well I don't see anything."

"I think that's what Icy intended," Riven said, glaring back over his left shoulder at her. Suddenly, he jerked his head around so he was looking over his right shoulder and pointed a warning finger at Tecna who froze. "Don't put your foot down."

"Whoa. That was freaky," Stella said, commenting on the way Riven had just whipped around like that.

"Move your foot slight to the left," Riven ordered Tecna, who was trying not to lose her balance. "Little more. Little more. Little more. Right, now you're good."

"Hey, I think I can see something," Bloom said, staring intently at the ground around Tecna's feet. "I think they're really are traps here."

Stella suddenly let out a gasp which made everyone jump, but instead of looking back behind them at the monsters might be following them, her eyes were locked on the ground.

"It's visual distortion! The witches must have altered the light waves so that the traps don't show up in our visual spectrum unless we're mentally aware of it!" Stella explained quickly. She might not be the smartest one out of her friends, but as a fairy that specialised in sunlight attacks, she understood light waves and how they related to vision (3). "Selective magic like this is advanced spell casting! No wonder the Trix were so feared while they were at Cloud Tower! They had malicious intent and the knowledge to back their plans up."

"Told you there were traps," Riven said childishly to Layla who rolled her eyes at him. Once everyone understood how the traps worked and they had the mental awareness to actually see parts of them, the group managed to get through the Trix's trap and make it to the other side easily.

"We did it!" Stella cheered, but her jubilation was premature.

"There's more monsters coming from that path!" Flora reported as several monsters became visible from the trees.

"So let's run the other way," Layla suggested.

"The other way is a cliff," Timmy informed her regretfully. He didn't know how they managed to back themselves into a corner like that, but now that they were here, it didn't look good.

"Let's see how far the drop is," Bloom said, not willing to rule anything out just yet. Carefully, she and the others peered over the side of the cliff, and the drop that awaited them did not look reassuring.

"Oh gods," Stella groaned, stepping back from the edge as her fear of heights hit her.

"It's a long way down," Brandon said, staring down as the drop. There was no way they're be able to scale that thing.

"So what do we do?" Tecna asked, her voice bordering in the edge of panic.

"Well, we've got a trap down one path, monsters coming at us from all sides," Layla counted off.

"And a cliff behind us," Flora finished, watching in dread as the monsters started to move in on them. And no matter how they looked at it, they couldn't seem to find a way out of this mess.

Musa swallowed loud. "It's been nice knowin' ya guys."

* * *

_(1) This stat relates to our world. Did you know that you're more likely to get killed by coconut than get attacked by a shark? Although I have a feeling that may not be the case in Australia anymore since this summer we had three shark attacks in two days, all at different beaches. Scary _

_(2) I never really understood what the charmixes were supposed to be. The broaches are straight forward enough, but what are the handbags supposed to do. Are they even handbags to being with? And they've got to be impractical when it comes to fighting. Take Flora's charmix for example; it just hangs down from her shoulder down to her waist on a think piece of string. What's stopping that from snapping or just slipping off her shoulder when she's flying? It just seems silly to me_

_(3) I figured that would be a suitable explanation to why we can all see the traps but the others can't. There's actually some legitimate science behind it what with how light waves relate to the visual spectrum. I loved studying the eye and light waves in biology, except of course the dissecting of the bull's eye. I'm usually fine with dissecting things, but when that thing happens to be staring back at me I tend to freak out _

_TBC._


	22. Last Resort

_Okay, there is an important note that everyone needs to take into an account before they read this chapter: Somewhere between the last chapter and this chapter, Prada the Pixie of Fashion magically appeared in the Resort Realm, changed the boys into their school uniform, made fun of Stella since it looks like she has a neck tie wrapped around her head and then vanished for no apparent reason. Now it might all seem a little random, I know, but it's the only explanation I can give to how the boys change clothes so fast. _

_So now that that's all cleaned up, here we go. _

_

* * *

_**Chapter Twenty-Two – Last Resort**

"By my count, we need to take on ten monster a piece," Tecna calculated, taking into account the number of monsters closing in on them and estimating just how many people it would take the bring some of them down.

"Ten's not so bad," Bloom said, trying to sound positive in the face of certain pain. "Come on!"

"All you fairies who have your charmix you should fly out of here and save yourselves," Flora suggested but to which none of the fairies warmed to.

"No way!" Bloom instantly objected.

"Fairies don't abandon their friends!" Stella added sternly.

"We won't leave you either," Lockette assured the group.

"All for one includes pixies too you know," Amore told them. The pixies may be small and seemingly useless, but they were loyal to the end which had to count for something. Also, their magic hadn't been completely neutralised by the Resort Realms anti-magic shield, which meant that not only did they have the ability to fly, but some of their other magic was still of use to them, such as Lockette's sense of direction and Digit's logical calculations.

"Hold on. I've got a really good idea," Timmy suddenly spoke up. "Riven knows the way through these invisible net traps, right?"

Bloom nodded. "Right, but the monsters don't."

"That could work," Tecna agreed, already seeing where this plan was going.

"Come on," Riven ordered, moving off. "Follow me."

The group followed his lead, but Timmy lagged behind as he pulled out a communication device and radioed, "Charlie Horse to Poet Man: Code nineteen."

"Timmy!" Tecna scolded. "There's a time and a place for gadgets! Come on! Hurry!"

Riven came to a stop on the edge of the traps and quickly scanned them to get his bearings. The others blinked and slowly started to see the grid in front of them, but Riven would always be able to see it better. "Okay, listen up! If we make our way to the centre areas of the traps with out tripping any, the monster will chase us and get caught in the nets. So let's split up and make our stand over there, over there and over there."

There was no time to explain their plan in further detail, but whether it was from understanding or by chance, the group moved off into the traps without tripping anything, and the monsters followed them right into them. One maned wolf leapt at a few of the girls, but instead of hitting any of them, it triggered a trap. The net tightened around it and lifted the wolf into the air where it thrashed in vain to break free.

"Yes!" Bloom cheered, watching the wolf struggle.

"Got one over here, too!" Musa reported as another monster landed itself in the Trix's traps.

"Here come the big guys!" Layla warned as the herblasaurs entered the area where the traps were, but the second they put their feet down, the traps seized them.

"Timmy, you are a genius," Riven grinned, watching the trapped monsters as the others cheered loudly.

"Trapped in their own traps. This rocks!" Musa applauded.

"Not all of them. Look out!" Sky warned as a hunter troll made its way to the edge of the traps. Instead of walking right into them like the other monsters had, the troll used the nets that held the wolves and the herblasaurs to swing right over the traps. And of course, land traps were useless against sky scorpions.

"Just follow me. Step where I step," Riven ordered since they were going to head into a new area of traps and they didn't have time for the others to adjust their mental awareness so they could see them. Everyone was so focused on getting to safety that none of them noticed that Layla was falling behind until it was too late.

* * *

"What do you mean we lost her?!" Musa shouted, her temper barely in check. The group had finally come to rest alongside a brook, but their peace was short lived when they realised that Layla was missing. "How could you guys let this happen?!"

"Layla's a smart, athletic girl. If anyone was going to be left behind, I never would have picked it to be her," Brandon said, and he felt several pairs of female eyes glare at him. "Okay, I may have worded that wrong. What I meant to say was – "

"We've got to find her," Tecna interrupted. "Perhaps if we split up to cover more ground then we could – "

"With the Trix out there? No thank you," Stella objected. "If we split up we're more likely to land ourselves in more trouble."

Sky nodded. "That's a good point."

"So we just leave Layla out there?" Musa questioned. "The Trix are just as likely to run into her while she's on her own and she doesn't have her charmix yet. They'll crush her and she'll have no back up unless we go out and find her."

Sky kept nodding. "Another good point."

"So what do we do?" Bloom asked.

"We do both," Riven answered.

"Do you think before you speak?" Brandon asked.

"Are you going to let me finish?" Riven snapped, glaring at the squire for a moment before continuing. "We need to do some reconnaissance on the situation but we can't exactly go walking around or the witches will see us so we should send the pixies out to scout for us."

"Fairies," Musa corrected without even really thinking about it.

"No. I actually mean pixies this time," Riven told her. "They're small and there's plenty of them so they'll be able to cover more ground. And seriously, who's going to notice a couple extra bugs floating around the forest."

"Although it was put rather insultingly, Riven does have a point," Tune said, looking as if she was considering using her umbrella as a spear again. "After all, Layla went all the way to Shadow Haunt for us. The least we can do is can do is go out into the forest for her."

"Yeah! Let's go find Layla!" Chatta cheered, and before anyone could stop them, all six pixies flew off into the forest in search of their friend. All the fairies looked concerned – both about Layla and their pixies – but they all knew that they had to stay put until they had more information.

"This might actually work," Sky said, staring off in the direction one of the pixies had gone off in. He had tried to keep his eye on her as long as he could, and he had lost her in a matter of seconds.

"Of course it will," Riven said confidently, sinking down to the ground to try and get comfortable while he waited. A few of the other followed his example, but as comfortable as they may be, none of them could relax while the Trix and half their party were still out there. That worry doubled when one by one the pixies all returned without news of Layla's whereabouts.

"So what's the plan now?" Bloom asked when all the pixies except Piff had returned. Layla was still missing, there was a forest full of monsters hunting them down and of course the ominous shadow of the Trix loomed over everything. They needed to come up with a game plan to retaliate against this impossible threat.

"Running's a mistake," Timmy instantly threw out. "I think our best tactical move is if we set up some traps of our own."

Most of them nodded, but before anyone could voice their own opinions, the sound of baby-like babbling filled the air as Piff came flying out of the tress. "Piff's back," Flora said.

"Without Layla," Musa added.

Everyone watch as Piff flew over and sat herself in Bloom's hand. The normally sleepy pixie was very much awake, and clutched in her tiny little hand was a piece of material she had found while out scouting for Layla. "Piff, you couldn't find her?" Bloom asked to which Piff replied in incoherent babble, but they all understood what she was trying to tell them when she held up the piece of material she had found.

"Isn't that a piece of Layla's shirt?" Stella asked, a look of panic on her face.

"Okay, nobody start thinking the worst," Brandon ordered, trying to stop everyone from jumping to conclusions.

"That's right. Not yet," Sky agreed as Lockette flew over to takes a closer look at the cloth Piff had found. Piff went on to tell her something, but none of the teenagers could understand what she was saying.

"She's said she found that piece of fabric hanging on a cliff," Digit translated Piff's babble to everyone.

"Lockette, can you use this to try and sense where Layla is?" Bloom asked her bonded pixie, and instead of replying, Lockette simply removed the clip for her hair and extended it out into her wand.

"I can sense Layla's in that direction," Lockette reported, after concentrating on her powers for a moment. Lockette may not be as reliable in emergency situations as some of the other pixies were, but if there was one thing they could trust her on it was her sense of direction.

Pushing off Riven's shoulder as means to helping her get to her feet, Musa stood up, ready to follow Lockette's lead. "Come on. Let's go."

"Is she okay, Lockette?" Stella asked as the group walked.

"That I can't tell," Lockette informed them regretfully. The group remained silent as they walked, and it wasn't long before Lockette led them to a cliff simular to the one they had been trapped against not long ago. "She's down there."

"Okay everybody, let's go get Layla," Bloom told everyone, looking as if she was ready to BASE jump off the cliff in search for her friend. Unfortunately, there were several other issues going on asides from Layla that needed their attention, namely what they were going to do about the Trix.

"Guys look, I know we've got to find Layla but we've also got to set up a battle base of some sorts," Timmy pointed out and everyone knew he had a point.

"Alright Timster, you're in charge with this one," Sky delegated. "Just tell us what to do."

"Wait, why is he in charge?" Tecna asked, actually sounding a little annoyed about Timmy's promotion.

"Because Timmy's aced every tactics and strategies class we've ever taken," Riven answered her.

"No one's better than Timmy," Brandon added. Sky, Brandon and Riven may be competitive against each other in class, but there was no denying that Timmy as a much better student than any of them could ever be. If Timmy had been born with a more athletic physic, chances were that their squad would have had a completely different chain of command.

"Bloom, why don't you and Lockette take the rest of the pixies and go search for Layla while we set up camp," Timmy suggested. He didn't really like the idea of splitting up, but they had too many things to deal with at the moment to have everyone focused on one thing at once. Bloom had her charmix and the pixies were willing to go through anything to protect the Winx Club. Timmy believed that Bloom would be in less danger on her own than if she stayed with the group.

But that didn't mean Sky wasn't going to worry. "Be careful, okay?"

"Are you sure we shouldn't go with you?" Flora asked as Bloom lowered herself over the edge of the cliff.

"Don't worry, you guys. I can handle this," Bloom assured them. No sooner had those words left her lips than the rock she had one of her feet balance on slipped loose, causing her to almost fall. The Last Princess of Sparx let out a surprised scream, but she managed to find her feet on a ledge a little lower down. "I'm okay!" Bloom yelled before laughing shakily. "No worries!"

"I can't look anymore," Stella said, turning away. "I hate cliffs."

"Don't worry babe. We won't be sending you over any cliffs on this mission," Brandon promised her, reaching over to take her hand in his before looking eagerly at Timmy. "So, Timster, what's the plan?"

* * *

"That's the plan?" Brandon asked sceptically when Timmy had finished explaining his idea.

Sky shot his squire an unimpressed look. "I don't see you coming up anything better."

"Hey, I'm not saying its bad or nothing, it's just that have ya seen how long it takes construction workers to build a house? It takes them forever, and we don't have any of the tools or training or even a pants line to make us a proper builders cleavage (1)," Brandon pointed out. Riven pulled a disgusted face at Brandon's final comment, but said nothing.

"Well I think it's a good plan," Musa spoke up. "And since no one else is useful enough to come up with anything, I say we do it."

Timmy's plan was simple enough. There were two main objectives; trapping the witches and dispelling the monsters. The boys would do as much as they could physically, but there were certain parts which would depend on magic, such as coming up with a way to counter the witches' hypnotic control over the monsters. Most of their efforts, however, went into trapping the Trix. They needed a way to bait them without putting anyone in danger, which is where Timmy had come up with the idea of building a log cabin that would never pass a safety inspection since the Trix had proven in the past that they couldn't pass up an opportunity to destroy a building of any kind.

Using his broad sword, Brandon was in charge of cutting the trees down while Sky and Riven had the job of moving the logs over to the site and help Timmy construct the crudely built cabin.

"Two more and we'll be set, Brandon," Timmy told Brandon after looking over what they had built so far. Brandon didn't say it, but Timmy knew that he was silently crying out in joy. Cutting down trees took a lot out of a guy, hero or not.

"Timmy, are you sure we should cut notches in the middle over every roof beam?" Sky asked, pausing in his labouring. His strict upbringing had led him to be a bit of a perfectionist, and even when he knew it was intended to be poorly built, he still didn't like the idea of not making some the best it could possibly be.

"Positive," Timmy assured him. "And hey Riven, don't forget to set up that net behind that rock to the east."

"It's done," Riven reported. Luckily they had packed several phantom nets in their supplies to make their job a little easier.

"Excellent. Keep it up. I'm gonna go see how Stella and Musa are going," Timmy said. Stella and Musa had been spending the last half an hour using their chamix's to levitate rocks across a stream to act as a dam. "Looks like the water's holding. Good job, you guys."

"As if you expected anything else from us," Stella said with a flick her of blonde hair. Timmy didn't know whether it was because she had made up with Brandon or because they were actually doing something that she found interesting, but Stella's mood had suddenly made a change for the better. And with everything that was happening at the moment, Timmy was thankful to have one less things to worry about.

* * *

"You could help, you know," Sky snapped at Riven, who had been standing around doing nothing apart from watching Sky work for the last few minutes.

"I am helping," Riven smirked back. "I'm supervising."

"That's not helping."

"Hey, I don't need to help if I don't want to. _I_ was the one who found the Trix and worked out what they were up to, _I_ was the one who got you guys through the traps and _I_ was the one who thought of sending out the pixies as recon. As far as I'm concerned, I'm done for the day. It's time for you guys to pull your weight."

"I'm tempted to just let the witches kill you."

"Only tempted?"

"Riven, leave Sky alone and go be useful somewhere else," Timmy ordered, walking over to observe the cabin Sky had been working. "Keep chopping, Sky. Remember, we want this roof to be totally collapsible."

"Timmy, why are we doing this?" Sky asked, unable to hold his tongue any longer. "I mean, I get the idea of having something for the Trix to target besides us, but why are we making so collapsible? Wouldn't it be a better idea to make it strong enough to survive an attack in case we need a strong hold?"

"No. I don't like the idea of us being trapped."

"But if we – "

"Icy's a show off," Timmy interrupted. "She always has been and she always will be. You saw her during the Great Witch Invasion. She rode all the way to Alfea on a throne of rot just because she wanted to make an entrance. I wouldn't be surprised if she's out there right now looking for the biggest, fiercest-looking monster for her to ride around on while she's hunting us down. And if we offer her a stage, she's gonna get right up on it."

"Oh, right," Sky said, looking down at the cabin. "I take it this is the stage?"

"Yup. Icy will love it."

"And if she doesn't."

"We'll find a way to bait her."

"What have you got planned?"

"I'm still kind of in the midst of working it out," Timmy confessed. "But as soon as I work it all out I'll be sure to fill you in on it."

"Kay, I'll have your back when you work it out."

"Thanks Sky. I might hold you to that," Timmy grinned thankfully. After glancing over the cabin one final time, Timmy left Sky to finish off and went to look for the girls. "Hey girls! We need you over here!"

"Coming!" Stella called, and a few seconds later, the Princess of Solaria, Musa and Flora had all come running over to him. "Ready and awaiting your instructions, Commander Timmy."

"Good," Timmy nodded, but he couldn't help but notice that someone was missing. "Where's Tecna?"

"She stayed back to finish off some of the traps," Flora informed him.

"Oh, okay. That's a good idea," Timmy covered, leading them off. "We think we may have come up with a way to unspell the monsters. Brandon's been collecting a fruit that he found growing in the area. It's not on any of the lists of dangerous plants we have, so we're thinking that if we put a countering spell in the fruit and fed it to them, Darcy's hypnotic hold over them should diminish. Please tell me that's right, or else we've just had Brandon collect a mountain load of fruit for nothing."

"He could sell them at market," Stella suggested helpfully.

"And yes, you're right," Musa answered Timmy's original question.

"That's a puffuldaf," Flora informed everyone when Brandon and his mountain of fruit came into view. "They are a non-poisonous fruit, but they're very sweet. One whole fruit is equivalent to eating a bucket full of candy in one sitting, but I'm sure that the monsters in this area have adapted themselves to the fruit over the years."

"I guess the same can't be said about the tourist," Musa grinned, noticing the way Brandon was clutching his stomach. "How much did you eat?"

"About a half of one," Brandon cringed. "My guts are aching."

"Oh, poor baby," Stella cooed, giving him a quick hug and tried not to smile when he let out a pained groan. Although she knew it sometimes annoyed his friends, she had always loved Brandon's childish nature. No matter what the situation, she could always trust him to be joking and upbeat about it all, and it was something she had missed over the last few months. Brandon always knew how to make her laugh and that long stretch of silence since their fight had left her feeling down and cranky, but now that the two of them had stopped being so stubborn, it felt to Stella like her sun was returning to her after a long and difficult night. She just couldn't wait for all this drama to be over so they could really make-up.

"I just wanted to see what they tasted like."

"I know Snookums."

"I realise that you're on the edge of a diabetic coma, but can we try and focus please?" Timmy asked.

"Right," Brandon nodded. Pushing his suffering to the back of his mind, Brandon turned to address Stella and Musa since magic would be needed to finish this phase of the plan. "We need you to enchant these puffuldafs so when the creatures eat them they'll be de-spelled."

Musa nodded and picked up a stick in order to draw a circle in the dirt around the pile of fruit. Circles were used in magic since they amplified power and focused spells, and since they were working with such a limited amount of magic, they needed all the help they could get. _"Anamlous mandurous." _

"_Magerasous,"_ Stella finished off the spell.

"Wow," Flora gasped when the girls finished their casting. "You girls said all the right words and did all the right motions and didn't even ask for my help. I'm impressed. (2)"

Stella bowed jestingly. "Believe it or not, but I do pay attention in class."

"Let's hope it actual works," Brandon said, tossing some of the fruit into a bag. He'd have to divide the fruit up so that everyone had some of them otherwise their plan really wouldn't be very affective.

"Hey Musa, do you have enough charmix power for a brief reconnaissance flight?" Timmy asked the musical fairy. So far there hadn't been any sign of the Trix advancing, but he'd still like to know what they were up to so they didn't get ambushed. And since the pixies had all gone with Bloom, it looked like it was going to have to be a fairy that went scouting for them.

"I think so," Musa answered.

"Boy, Bloom and the pixies sure have been gone a long time," Stella sighed suddenly.

"Layla too," Flora reminded her. "I hope nothing's happened."

"C'mon guys, we gotta keep a positive attitude. Heroics 101, right?" Musa asked the two heroes who nodded. "Now you guys hang tight. I'll be right back."

"Be careful," Timmy called as he watched as Musa flew off. With the fruit spelled, the faulty cabin finished and the traps all sent, the group put their energy into deepening the stream Stella and Musa had dried out when they built the dam. It was already fairly deep, and with all of them working together, it didn't take long until Timmy's plan looked like it was reaching completion. "Okay you guys. I think that should do it."

"I don't understand what Icy, Darcy and Stormy are doing here," Tecna spoke up. "It's not like them to go around trying to witch us up without some other objective."

Everyone agreed that the witches attack didn't make much sense, but when Musa flew in from her scouting mission, she had a warning and some insight into the situation. "Guys! Get ready!" Musa called as she landed and transformed back out of her winx mode. "The witches are on their way and it turns out they're after Bloom!"

"What?" Sky gasped quietly as he felt his chest constrict. He had hoped that with the failed attempt to use Bloom's Dragon Fire to enslave the universe last year, the Trix would leave Bloom alone, but in retrospect he knew that was a foolish thing to hope for. And now that the Trix were working for Lord Darkar, his fears and concern for the safety of his girlfriend had double. But he had little time to dwell on panic, because at that moment – mounted on three dangerous-looking dragadons – came the Trix Sisters.

"Here they are," Stella informed everyone, but it wasn't as if they were going to miss them. Those dragadons they were riding were _huge._

"Position everyone!" Timmy ordered. "Tecna, come with me!"

Timmy had already filled everyone in on what he wanted them to do, so without delay, everyone one moved off to their assigned positions. Brandon and Riven took to hiding behind trees and under bushes to await the Trix. Timmy took his place on top of the poorly built cabin to act as bait.

"Come on!" he said as he helped Tecna up onto the roof with him. He knew things weren't great between him and the digital fairy, but he wanted her to be close to him so he could at least keep an eye on her.

Sky – on his levi board – moved off to hid in a bush that looked suspiciously like an illicit plant (3). Poking his head out of the bushes, the prince saw Flora, Stella and Musa run past, looking for their places to hide. "Just keep going ladies."

Flora and Stella kept running, while Musa followed behind them. Musa was so focused on catching up to her friends that she almost jumped out of her skin when a strong hand seized her around the wrist and dragged her back behind a tree. She let out a loud gasp and probably would have screamed too if not for the fact that a hand covered her mouth to silence her and she felt a powerful chest that couldn't have belong to any of the Trix pressed against her back.

"Relax, pixie," a deep voice said hotly in her ear, and Musa felt a delightful shiver shoot down her spine and cause her toes to curl in her shoes. The grip on her loosened and Musa turned to see Riven moving deeper into the undergrowth. He looked back at her over his shoulder and glared at her with irritation that looked to her to be rather forced. "Are you coming or not?"

"You don't have to be so snappy about it," Musa told him, but she followed after him anyway. "You're the one who grabbed me, remember?"

"Technicalities."

"You could be a little nicer to me, you know."

"I could be," Riven answered simply, turning around suddenly so his face was right in hers. "Now, are you going to hide or do I have to throw you down?"

"Are we re-enacting a desert island scene from some romance novel?" Musa asked slyly, shocking Riven. Their relationship was complicated and mostly revolved around them tip-toeing around each other, so whenever one of them broke ranks and said something flirtatious or suggestive, it threw the other for a loop. Riven prided himself on being able to take a punch, but this was one hit from Musa that always left him breathless and scatter brained. Musa knew this, and couldn't suppress a grin as she sunk to the ground. "Now, are you going to hide or do I have to drag you down here."

Unable to think of any kind of response, Riven simply lay down next to her and tried not to look flustered. "I though I could use some back up," he tried to cover.

"Right," Musa smirked, not believing it for a second.

* * *

"Here they come," Tecna groaned as the witches drew closer. Monsters under Darcy's control flanked them on either side and the Trix's gloomix were glowing brightly. The Trix definitely had the advantage, but Timmy was confident in his plan. He had predicted correctly that the Trix would make some flashy entrance on some kind of monster, and he couldn't help but grin when the Trix dropped down into the dried out river bed.

"Okay! Time for Plan A!" Timmy informed everyone. "Hurry! The witches are in place!"

"Alright, they're waiting for you Musa," Riven said. "You better get into position."

Musa pushed herself up and started to move out of hiding. "I'm on it."

"Go," Riven nodded, watching her and her fantastic legs go, and despite his best efforts, he couldn't stop a sly grin from spreading across his face. "Damn pixie."

"You're first, Musa," Timmy reminded her.

"Okay, I'm all set," Musa told him.

"Use your magic on the water."

"Okay, let's go charmix!" Musa shouted, and in a flash of red and white light Musa transformed into her winx form, complete with charmix. As soon as she had her wings, Musa flew over the dam she and Stella had created and gathered her magic. "Soundwaves!"

With a blast of sound magic, Musa manipulated the surface of the water, churning up waves until they spilled over the side of the dam and flooding the stream bed that the Trix and most of the monster were in. The rock dam that Musa and Stella had spent so much time on fell apart and the water that had been held back released itself in a deluge that swept the monsters and the witches downstream.

"Yeah! Let's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" Brandon celebrated as everyone else cheered.

"Yay! Timmy!" Tecna congratulated as they watched the now sopping wet Trix drag themselves out of the river and chase after their dragadons.

"Told you we could do it," Timmy couldn't help but grin.

"So hey, does this mean we can like go back to laying around and doing nothing?" Stella had to ask. She was so busy smiling at her own joke that she didn't see a sky scorpion swoop down at her until it had grabbed hold of her shoulders and had taken off into the air.

"Stella!" Brandon shouted in alarm, abandoning his post and moving off to save his girlfriend.

"Ah!! Drop me!" Stella screamed, but as the sky scorpion flew higher and her fear of heights kicked in, she started to consider not parting with the monster. "Oh no, don't drop me!"

Bolting up to higher ground, Brandon jumped right onto the sky scorpions back. Below them, the monsters moved in at attack the group, but all his attention was on saving his Stella. "Don't worry Stella, I gotcha!"

"Make it fly lower!" Stella told him. "Lower!"

"I'm trying, babe!"

"It's drooling on me!"

"Brandon! The fruit!" Timmy shouted from the ground. "Give it the de-spelled fruit!"

Understanding Timmy's point immediately, Brandon reached into his pockets and pulled out a spelled fruit and shoved it into the monsters mouth. He felt the monster flinch beneath him as the spell hit it, but then he felt it relax as it slowly slipped out from under Darcy's control.

"Hey sweetie, you might want to get ready for a pretty rough landing," Brandon warned as the sky scorpion dropped lower. Finally, when Stella was just a few feet off the ground, the sky scorpion released its hold on the princess. Stella managed to run for a few steps before she overbalanced and fell on her face. "Yeah!"

The couple waved at each other, but when the sky scorpion realised that it had a _human_ on it back, it went as crazy as a bull at a rodeo. Brandon held on as long as he could, but as soon as he figured he was a short distance from the ground, he made a jump for it. He hit the ground hard and his knees buckled so that he ended up in a heap on the ground, but other than his pride, he was uninjured.

"Brandon!" Stella squealed, running over and pulling him off the ground into a hug. "Oh, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Are you?"

"Thanks to you," Stella said before squeezing him again. "How'd I get so lucky?"

Brandon simultaneously grinned in delight and felt incredibly stupid for even think that Stella didn't value him just because he was a squire. "I ask that question myself, but we're not done here."

"Right. Let's go kick some witch booty!"

* * *

"Okay, now for round two," Timmy said to himself as the Trix advanced upon them again on their dragadons. He and his friends had successfully removed most of the de-spelled monsters, but now the real game was going to being. "Tecna, don't follow me."

"What?" Tecna asked stupidly, not understanding what he was saying.

"Just stay here," Timmy repeated before turning his attention to waving at the Trix. "Hey witches. Hey!"

"Timmy, what do you think your doing?" Tecna shouted as he ran off, and she felt a strong stab of panic when the witches follow after him with murderous grins on their faces. "Timmy!"

But Timmy didn't hear her. Running at full pelt and laughing as if he was enjoying himself, Timmy tried his hardest to instigate the witches into following him right into their traps. "Nerd on the run!"

"Timmy! Be careful!"

"Don't worry about me! Sky's going to help me out! It's all part of the plan!" Timmy assured her, before looking around and seeing no sign of the prince. "Although, wait a minute, where is Sky? Sky?!"

"I got you, Timmy!" Sky called as he came flying in on his levi board. He had been waiting for the Trix to get closer to him before he made his move, even if that meant panicking his friend for a second. But now that he was free to move, he was going to do his very best to stop these witches in their tracks. After all, they were the ones putting his girlfriend in danger. Flying in, Sky swooped at Stormy and almost hit her right in the face.

"Hey! What was that?" Stormy flinched.

Sky's blue eyes narrowed as he pulled out his phantom blade. He had had enough of the Trix ruining what was supposed to be a relaxing trip. "The nerd run's over, witches."

"Yeah, whatever," Stormy sneered, shooting a lightning bolt at him, but her attacked missed.

"Get it, Stormy," Icy ordered.

"I'm trying too," Stormy growled, but then Sky swoops in again and nearly sliced her nose off. "Whoa!"

Third time round, Sky was finished with warning shots. Flying in, Sky's board collided head on with Stormy's dragadon. He hit it right between the eyes and stunned it to the point where it actually collapsed. Stormy, however, wasn't going to let something as small as her mount collapsing stand in her way from causing some chaos. No sooner had her dragadon hit the ground than Stormy levitated herself off its back and moved over to one of her sisters.

"Darcy! Wait up!" Stormy called before dropping down behind Darcy. And with the three sisters on two dragadons, they continued to charge after Timmy, who was still doing his best to instigate the Trix.

"Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah!" Timmy taunted them like a first-grade school kid. "What's wrong with you witches? You can't catch a little nerd on the run like me?"

Timmy continued to run, and he led them right over a trip wire which Riven pulled tight right in front of one of the monsters feet.

"Darcy! Watch out!" Stormy shouted when she noticed the trap, but by then it was too late. Darcy's dragadon ran straight into it and fell flat on its face, resulting in Darcy and Stormy getting thrown.

"Now Riven! Cut the line while they're down!" Timmy ordered. Riven pulled out sabre and cut the sapling that was holding back a net that he had set up earlier. The net was launched into the air and landed over Darcy, Stormy and the dragadon, tying them up and making Timmy laugh.

"Sweet," Riven grinned, taking delight is seeing his ex struggle against their bondages. But his gloating made him underestimate the witch, and how quickly her patience could wear out.

"I'll take care of this," Darcy snarled, hitting the net with her physic powers and blowing it off them. Once they were free, Darcy and Stormy took to the skies with their gloomixes fully charged.

"Not sweet."

"Hurry you big brut! Trample that whinny little nerd boy!" Icy ordered her dragadon, her patience also wearing thin, but that's how Timmy wanted it. He wanted Icy to get mad, because that makes her stupid, and when she followed him towards the cabin with her two sisters flanking her in the skies, it look like it was working.

"Timmy!" Tecna and Musa gasped. "Look out!"

"Just get out of the way, girls! Trust me!" Timmy told them. The girls hesitated, but they did as they were ordered. With a running jump, Timmy got onto roof and Icy followed. The second the dragadons weight was on that roof, it started to give way. Timmy managed to jump clear as the roof caved in, effectively trapping her. "Yeah! Alright!"

"Where is Bloom?" Icy demanded, unwilling to even entertain the thought that she had lost the upper hand. Timmy and Sky jumped down into the cabin with sword and gun raised.

"So er, who's the dork now, Icy?" Timmy had to ask.

Sky was a little more focused in getting answers than gloating. "Tell us what you want with Bloom?"

"Uh-uh-uh. Why would I do that? This isn't over," Icy reminded them as Darcy and Stormy entered from above. Sky suddenly didn't feel as confident as he had been a moment ago.

Timmy, however, remained secure in his victory. "But it's gonna be in a second."

"That's right," Icy agreed, walking forward with Darcy and Stormy flanking her on either side. "And you're gonna be the loser, loser."

"Your back up plan has a back up plan, right Timmy?" Sky asked quietly, not liking how the three Trix Sisters looked when they advanced on you all at once.

Darcy popped her hip into a very seductive stance, but she twisted it into something off putting by doing that weird thing with her fingers over her eyebrows (4). "So, how do you want to go? Physic blast?"

"Icy tomb?" Icy suggested.

"Or a burst of lighting?" Stormy almost purred.

"How 'bout all three at once, huh?" the three sisters all said as once. Sky braced himself for a world of pain, but it never came because just as the witches charge up their gloomixes, a shadow fell over them and a roaring sound from above when a Red Fountain squad ship entered the air space.

"Just in time," Timmy grinned, looking up at the ship he had been expecting for the last few hours.

"Where did that come from?" Stormy asked, and she paled when she saw the sided gunners of the ship readied themselves and aimed directly at the witches. "Uh-oh."

Without even issuing a warning, the guns open fire. Everyone jumped clear, but the cabin was blow to smithereens. Sky landed in a heap surround by large splinters that had once been trees. Sky didn't like to admit it, but he was a little upset that the cabin he had spent so much time and effort building was suddenly reduced to toothpicks. Sky felt torn between slapping their saviour on the back and punching him in the mouth, but when he saw who was sitting in the pilots seat, his jaw dropped.

"Hey there, dudes," Helia greeted, before setting the ship down on the ground.

"Helia!" Sky gasped. He knew that Helia was their back up, but since when did a pacifist fire on people with guns?

"Helia, what are you doing here?" Tecna asked, surprised to see him in this part in the universe.

"Timmy radioed me," Helia informed her. "I would have gotten here sooner but I had to bypass an asteroid field."

"Where is the Timister?" Brandon asked, looking around and not noticing his friend. The last time he had seen him was when Timmy and Sky had confronted the Trix, but then Helia had arrived and blasted the cabin into pieces. And judging from the worried looks on the faces of his friends, none of them had seen him either.

"Under there!" Musa suddenly gasped, her blue eyes wide and slightly panicked. Everyone followed her out stretched finger to the splintered debris of the cabin, and lying very still under several pieces of fractured timber was the mastermind behind their victory.

"Timmy!" Sky shouted, his mind reeling. He had been standing right next to Timmy when the guns had gone off. There was no way that Timmy could be hurt while Sky remained unscathed. That just wasn't fair.

"Oh! Timmy!" Tecna cried, running over with Sky to pull the wood off of Timmy.

"See you later, dorks!" Icy spat as she and her sisters flew off to return back to Shadow Haunt to face Lord Darkar without so much as a glimpse of their mission objective. Her words were tough, but it didn't disguise the fact that they were retreating.

"The witches," Flora pointed out to the others.

"Forget them. Let them go. We've gotta help Timmy. Make sure he's okay," Brandon stressed, grabbing another log and using it as leverage to push wood off of Timmy. Slowly, Timmy sat up and the second he could keep himself upright on his own, Tecna and Sky descend on him to make sure he was alright.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Timmy assured them as his friends continued to fuss over him. "Seriously, I'm fine."

While Sky, Brandon and Tecna gave all their attention to Timmy, there were a few who weren't giving him any of theirs at all, namely Flora. Helia had exited the ship and she had been struggling to keep from openly staring at him. She was very much aware of how she felt about him, but what she didn't know was how to act on those feelings. All she knew was that whenever she was around him, she got a funny feeling in her stomach, she lost the ability to construct intelligent sentences and she often blushed for no apparent reason.

And she wasn't the only one who noticed that.

"Heads up, Flo," Musa smirked as Helia moved over to the group and some pink covered Flora's cheeks. "Boy alert."

Helia couldn't suppress a small smile brushing across his lips when he caught a glance of how stunning Flora looked with her rosy cheeks and her hair in braids. He had been very disappointed when his grandfather had denied him the chance of spending a week with Flora and her friends, but he was here now and he wasn't going to miss an opportunity to spend some time with her. However, his chances of talking to her was stalled when Riven came running over to discuss emergency evacuation in case of Timmy being seriously hurt, which Riven kindly pointed out was technically Helia's fault since he was the one who blew up the cabin.

"Guys, I promise you, I'm fine," Timmy stressed again, trying to stop his friends from fussing over him.

"Yeah, like we're gonna believe you," Brandon said. "You could be delirious from pain for all we know. Now, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Brandon!"

"How many fingers?"

"Four."

"Four?!"

"Plus one thumb."

Brandon lowered his hand and gave Sky an unimpressed look. "He's a smart ass when he's hurt."

"Perhaps," Sky agreed. "But I think he's fine."

"You guys should have gone after the witches," Timmy told them from his place still on the ground. "I'm sorry I messed up."

"What are you talking about? Messed up? You're a hero today, Timmy," Tecna informed him, her eyes glowing in a delight and pride that Timmy hadn't seen in a long time. "You were totally amazing."

"It was just a bunch of tactical decisions based on proven battle strategies. I mean, it was nothing special," Timmy reminded her as he slowly got to his feet. He was still a bit disorientated so he had to hold onto Tecna to help keep his balance, and when he saw how worried she looked, he offered her a soft smile. "Hey, it's just what we do."

Noticing the way Timmy and Tecna were looking at each other, Sky promptly seized Brandon's arm and dragged him off so that the two technology enthusiasts could talk in private.

"I feel like I nearly lost you today and it made me realise," Tecna stammered as tears started to run down her cheeks, "that I've been mad at you because you would make the first move but really that just me being scared of stepping up myself and telling you how much I absolutely adore you."

Timmy suddenly felt as if his chest was going to explode with emotion from Tecna's words. He had spent the last few months trying to figure out what he did to make Tecna so mad at him, and it never occurred to him that it might have been because of something he hadn't done. But what surprised him even more was the fact that Tecna, who was normally so calm and collected, was actually crying. "Why are you crying Tecna?"

"I have no idea," Tecna confessed. "I didn't even know I could cry."

"Well they are tears but you're not sad so they seem illogical," Timmy pointed out, and Tecna couldn't help but laugh. In a flash, a small triangular brooch appeared on Tecna's chest where it shone for a moment before vanishing. "Hey! You got a charmix!"

"Hey everybody!" a voice called, and everyone looked up to see Bloom, the pixies and Layla walk out of the forest. "Look who me and the pixies found!"

"Hey!" Brandon greeted.

"Hey you guys!" Sky waved, utterly relieved that his girlfriend was safe.

"It's so great to see you all . . . _Ah-coo_!" Lockette sneezed. The Pixie of Portal's big eyes were red and watery and her nose was running. And one glance at the other pixies showed that she wasn't alone.

"Amore! What happened?" Stella asked, pulling her pixie into a soft embrace.

"I think we all have a small case of the pixie flu," Amore sniffed. "We were walking through these flowers and some of their pollen got sprayed into the air. Ever since then, we've been . . . we've been . . .we've . . . _Ah-coo_!"

"Is there any medication or something that we can give you?" Musa asked.

"No. Pixies are not like humans. Traditional medical salutations won't work on us," Digit informed them in a stuffy and congested sounding voice.

"The only option for us is the revisit the Flower of Life," Tune told them, a handkerchief held delicately up to her nose. "Our immune systems are weak because we've spent the last year at Alfea instead of at Pixie Village where we can easily access the Flower and its powers."

"Okay, so let's finish off here and head right back to Alfea," Bloom suggested.

"Looks like all the animals are back to normal," Flora noted.

Brandon grinned, patting a maned wolf that a few hours ago had been hunting them down. "Good, cause we're out of enchanted fruit."

"I heard about what you did, Helia," Bloom said. "Thanks for coming."

"I've always wanted to see the flowers here. I've heard they're beautiful," Helia told her, but he was looking at Flora when he spoke, and he felt a warm wave of pleasure when he saw her cheeks turn pink again.

"Hey guys! The pixies are really buggin' over here!" Musa called from her place surrounded by the pixies who were all sneezing their heads off.

"I just wanted to bounce on those things," Chatta told her friends. She felt guilty for getting them all sick, but there was no way she could have foreseen this. "They looked fine. I didn't know they would spew out all that . . . _Ah-coo_!"

"Why is the forest spinning?" Amore asked groggily.

"I tried a healing spell but . . ." Bloom trailed off rather than trying to word just how ineffective her spell had been.

"The only thing that can cure a sick pixie is tea brewed from the Flower of Life and that's at Pixie Village," Layla informed them all.

"Well, in that case it seems this calm, relaxing vacation of yours is officially over," Sky told the girls.

"I think I'll stay and check out realms natural beauty," Helia said, earning him some looks off the rest of the boys there who knew exactly what he was up to.

"Have fun," Flora winked at him. "And tell me what kind of neat stuff you find."

The guys all laughed out loud at Helia's failure.

"I think she missed your point," Riven grinned, delighted that someone was as hopeless in wooing a girl as he was.

"Just get on the ship," Helia smiled, shoving Riven towards the ship and making his roommate laugh again. But he did head off to the ship, and the rest of them followed.

* * *

"Okay, so if you can just drop some of us off at Alfea, then we can tell Ms. Faragonda what happened here while a few of us can go to Pixies Village," Bloom explained.

"Some of us should head back to Red Fountain to brief Saladin too," Timmy suggested.

"But what about the final piece of the Codex?" Sky brought up. "Can we really risk giving away the location of Pixie Village? I mean, that was the place that Lord Darkar was originally looking for."

"Er, you don't have to worry about giving the location of Pixie Village away," Helia said, grabbing everyone's attention. "Icy found it."

"What!!" all the pixies shouted at once, followed by a round of coughing and sneezing.

"When?" Layla asked, her voice panicked.

"Yesterday. Athena sensed something was wrong so she sent one of her pixie pets to the village. Apparently Icy somehow found out where it was and stole the final piece of the Codex."

"So Darkar's got the Ultimate Power?" Stella asked, looking out the window as if the weather would be sign of whether an Apocalypse was happening or not.

"We don't know what's happening. All we know is that we've been watching the entrances to Shadow Haunt and the Under Realm, and so far there have been no movement," Helia told them.

"Apart for the Trix teleporting themselves to the Resort Realm," Brandon added sourly.

"Right," Helia agreed hesitantly.

"Is there any good news?" Riven grumbled from his place slouched against one of the panels.

"Well, it's a bit off topic, but Rouge's egg hatched."

Sky brightened at the news. "Really?"

"Yeah, you're grandparents," Helia grinned. "It's a little filly with purple wings. Shannon's gonna call her Amethyst."

"I'm beginning to notice a theme," Timmy grinned.

"_Ah-coo_!" Digit sneezed.

"Alright, enough standing around," Sky told everyone, getting them focused. "We've got to get back to Magix to get these pixies better. Full speed, Mr. Timmy."

"Aye Captain," Timmy saluted.

While Timmy and Sky focused on flying the ship and Riven brooded in silence, Helia turned his attention to Brandon. The two of them had never really gotten along, but the exact reason behind the tension was something that Helia had never been able to identify. And he knew that the only way he was going to discover what that reason was, was through confrontation. "You don't like me very much, do you?"

"What?" Brandon said, trying to play dumb. "I never said that."

"Not directly, no, but I do get the feeling that – "

"I don't don't like you," Brandon tried to assure Helia but only ended up confusing both of them. "Look, it's not that I don't like you or nothing. I just don't understand you. I mean, you say you're all for pacifism and then you go and blow Timmy up."

"Yeah, I agree that that probably wasn't my best moment."

"So what are you; a pacifist or a hero?"

"Can't I be both?"

"No, because that would make you an ox-moron."

Helia stared at Brandon for a moment before he understood what the squire was talking about. "It's oxymoron. And I guess I dunno what I believe. I mean, I understand while you guys want to up hold Red Fountain's name and protect the innocent, but at the same time I've listened to my dad and what he says makes a lot of sense."

"You really look up to you're dad, huh?" Brandon asked, unexpectedly stumbling onto common ground with Helia. The wasn't a person in the universe that Brandon looked up too more than his dad, and he had the feeling that Helia felt the same about his own father.

"Yeah," Helia nodded. "It's hard not too. He's one hell of a public speaker."

"That doesn't surprise me. I mean, I heard that debate you had with Riven about pacifism. That was impressive. Hell, you almost had me changing my mind about the issue," Brandon confessed.

"It's nothing compared to when my old man speaks," Helia told him and Brandon couldn't help but grin. Maybe Helia wasn't that bad after all.

"Hey, maybe you can start your own team of combat pacifists," Brandon suggested. "You're welcome to use the name ox-morons. You can have a whole ox theme going on, you know with the whole Horns of Justice attack."

"What? Like Taurus from the Zodiac Fighters?"

Brandon stared at him in disbelief. "You _know_ the Zodiac Fighters?"

"Yeah. Who doesn't?"

"Helia, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship (5)."

* * *

_(1) Personally, I couldn't understand Timmy's plan. I really didn't make any sense to me and I honestly don't believe they'd be able to do all that in a short amount of time. However, I've gotta work with what's given to me. Also, Builder's Cleavage: also known as Plumber's Cleavage, Crackage or Coin Slot _

_(2) I always thought Flora sounded very condescending during that bit_

_(3) Seriously, go check out this episode again. There's something suspicious about that bush_

_(4) I so don't get why she does that. It's not very appealing _

_(5) Ah, Casablanca. It's not my favourite movie off all time (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy holds that place firmly) but it definitely has the best script of all time. Nothing much really happens in it but it has great lines that are so sarcastic and subtle. I love it _


	23. Darkness and Light

_I thought I was done with any short chapters and then I come across this little darling. I would never wish to have to write an assignment longer than this, but it's a lot shorter than the chapters before it and the ones that follow it. _

_Oh, and if you keep your eyes open you'll spot some spoilers for season 3._

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Twenty-Three – Darkness and Light**

"Layla, you and Flora go with the pixies to Pixie Village so they can get this tea for the Flower of Life," Bloom instructed when they got back to Alfea. "Tecna, Musa, Stella and I will stay back here and brief Ms. Faragonda on what happened in the Resort Realm and find out what's going on with Lord Darkar."

"Brandon and I can take you to Pixie Village in our squad ship if you want," Sky offered. "The rest of the guys can get back to Red Fountain on their levi bikes."

"Yeah, that'd be great, but with so many pixies and god-knows-what happening in Shadow Haunt, we might need a little more help. Helia, would you be able come with us?" Layla asked in a not so subtle way to getting the former art student to spend more time with Flora.

"Sure," Helia agreed without a fight.

"You guys can brief Saladin without us, can't you?" Sky asked Timmy and Riven.

"Yes, Sky. We're not children," Riven spat.

"Then why don't you act like it?" Layla shot back.

"Guys, don't start," Musa ordered, silencing the two of them.

"Fine. Let's just get our levi bikes," Riven said to Timmy who nodded. "They're still in the hanger, right?"

"Yeah, but I think they're behind my Red Wing," Helia informed them, referring to the single seater fighter jet that he had used to get to the Resort Realm. A few minutes later, Helia had moved his Red Wing out of the hanger and Timmy and Riven had gotten their hands on their levi bikes. Layla, Flora, Brandon, Sky and all the pixies piled into the squad ship while Helia was going to travel in the Red Wing rather than trying to get it back in the hanger again.

"Bye!" Stella waved as the ship flew off. "They're just going out to get some tea off a flower. What are the chances of something going wrong?"

"With our luck?" Musa questioned.

"Girls," a commanding voice addressed them, and everyone turned to find Griselda waiting for them at the top of the school steps. "Ms. Faragonda is waiting for you in her office."

"Coming Griselda," Bloom said as she and Stella moved off inside the school. Tecna stayed behind to give a quick good-bye to Timmy as did Musa, but in her case, she wasn't interested in Timmy.

"So, you coming to prom?" Musa asked casually.

"Red Fountain always goes to prom," Riven reminded her. "I'm sure it's not much of a party without a couple members of the opposite sex present."

"You gonna save me a dance?"

"I don't dance."

"You scared?"

"No."

"Then I'll be expecting a dance," Musa said, edging towards the stairs. "I gotta go."

"Yeah . . . wait," Riven impulsively stopped her, and suddenly he felt nervous and uncomfortable when he realised he wasn't sure what he was going to say after that. But she turned around and looked at him with her navy eyes, causing him to panic and say the first thing that popped into his head. "I like you too sorta."

Sorta is an interesting word. In most sentences, sorta means absolutely nothing, but in some sentences, sorta becomes everything. Sentences such as 'you're going to live' or 'it's a boy' can be completely changed with the inclusion of sorta at the end of them. And unfortunately for Riven, 'I like you' is another one of those sentences.

"You're a jerk," Musa snapped, storming off inside the school towards Faragonda's office and Tecna followed after him.

"Shut up," Riven snapped at Timmy before he had a chance to open his mouth.

"You're incredible, you know?" Timmy said, completely ignoring Riven's order.

"Shut up."

"I mean, even when you tell a girl who has been crushing on you since . . . well, forever, that you like her, you still manage to piss her off."

"I said; shut up!"

"Okay. Let's go."

* * *

"It's right down there," Digit pointed and Sky started lowering the ship down. It was hard to think that Lord Darkar had spent all year searching for Pixie Village, and here it as, tucked away in a secluded part of the forest. As soon as they were on the ground, the teenagers made their way into Pixie Village. Brandon carried Digit and Tune and Helia had Amore and Lockette while Flora and Layla carried their own bonded pixies. And all of those pixies were sneezing their heads off.

"Hi!" Libby, the Pixie of Messages, greeted and the reply was Chatta sneezing. "What's the matter? Is it allergies?"

"It's a flu," Digit told her.

"We dropped the others back at Alfea and then had to come here right away. Their immune system must have weakened because they haven't been back to the Flower of Life in so long," Layla said.

"Are you really mad at me?" Libby asked nervously. "I'm sorry about Icy."

"It's okay, Libby," Flora assured her, scooping her up in her hand. "We know you tried to save the Codex."

"I don't mean to be rude but we really need some tea," Tune interrupted.

"My throat's sore," Digit croaked.

"I'm cold," Lockette shivered.

"I'm hot," Amore groaned.

"I'm achy. Let's get some Flower of Life tea before this flu totally wipes us out," Chatta said.

"We should take some of that tea with us," Helia suggested. "It would be good to have in case you fly into another cloud of spores."

"We can't take the tea with us. We have to drink it here," Lockette told him firmly. "Come on Libby. Let's show them how it works."

But Libby had that anxious look she had when she asked them if they were mad at her for not stopping Icy from stealing the final piece of the Codex. "The Flower is sick."

"What?" all the pixies exclaimed in unison.

"Icy attacked it," Libby explained. "It hasn't been the same since."

"Let me see it," Flora instructed.

The Flower of Life was like no flower any of them had ever seen. If they hadn't known better, they would have thought it was a monument of some kind. There was a mote and several elegant arches made out of the Flowers leaves. But as striking as it looked, there certainly something wrong with it.

"Now, I'm no expert on flowers, but that one does not look well," Brandon said.

"Poor flower," Flora crooned, touching the Flower of Life to get a good sense of what was happening inside the plant. "I can sense its pain."

"Flora, we've tried everything," Libby told her. "Nothing works. It keeps getting worse."

"If the Flower of Life doesn't get better, neither will we," Chatta pointed out.

"No pressure," Brandon said to no one in particular.

Sky glared at his squire for a second before shifting his attention back to Flora. "Can you fix it, Flora? I mean, this is your field, no pun intended."

"I'll try," Flora promised, sinking to the ground with her legs tucked up underneath her. She delicately put her hands on either side of the Flower to get a reading and everyone feel silent to let her work. However, after twenty minutes without her so much as opening her eyes, people and pixies started to get a bit anxious. Their concerns didn't lessen when Flora suddenly dropped her hands and slumped ten minutes later.

"What is it?" Sky asked her.

"I dunno," Flora confessed, looking somewhat defeated and frustrated. "I've never dealt with a plant this complex before. I . . . I can't connect with it. It's on a level beyond my skill."

"Just focus, Flora," Helia said. "We know you can do this."

Flora bit her lower lips nervously, but she hesitantly put her hands on either side of the plant again. And she did not look confident.

* * *

"It's been over an hour and I don't see what good any of us are doing here," Layla whispered so as not to disturb Flora's concentration. The Princess of Tides was in conference the boys while Flora work and they were trying to figure out what their next move should be. "I just got word from Bloom, and apparently Griselda wants to go through a last minute training session. Should I go back?"

"Yes," Sky nodded. "Like you said, you're not doing any good here. May as well try and help prepare for Lord Darkar. Flora's the only one who can help the pixies now."

"I can get you back to Alfea in the squad ship, or you can sit on my lap in Helia's Red Wing," Brandon told Layla with a charming smile.

"Tempting, but I think I'll go by fairy wings," Layla smiled back.

"Your loss, but we should be done here before you get back."

But they weren't done by the time Layla managed to fit in a bit of training and returned to Pixie Village. Flora had tried several times to heal the Flower with her magic, but all efforts ended in failure. Eventually, Ms. Faragonda had to be called in via magical messaging to discuss her options with Ninfea, the Queen of the Pixies. The Queen had been very patient, but the future of her village and all who lived in it was in danger, so she was starting to get a bit panicked.

"Is there nothing we can do?" Faragonda asked after Flora and Ninfea had finished explaining what had happened so far.

"I am trying but my magic's not strong enough and Flora's hesitant to help," Ninfea said as Flora sat down next to her. Ms. Faragonda looked confused by this news.

"You should be able to take care of this Flora. What's the matter? Come in," Ms. Faragonda said, obviously talking to someone who had just knocked on her office door.

"Ms. Faragonda, my powers are not that strong," Flora told her headmistress, looking both ashamed and defeated. "I mean, I haven't even gotten my charmix yet."

"You're the Fairy of Nature. You can do this."

"But if I make a mistake, Pixie Village could disappear forever."

"Then don't make a mistake, Flora. Now I want you to go ahead and save that flower," Ms. Faragonda ordered before closing the magical link. Flora sighed heavily and looked absolutely miserable.

"Come on, let's get these pixies into the shade," Layla suggested. "The last thing they need is pixie heat stroke."

"Ms. Faragonda wasn't very nice," Tune said once everyone had gotten comfortable in the shade while Flora continued to try and connect with the Flower of Life so she could heal it. "Flora's trying her best and . . . and . . . _ah-choo_!"

"Ms. Faragonda knows that, but we don't have time to mess around here. You guys are sick and Lord Darkar has all the pieces of the Codex," Layla reminded them. "We've just got too much to deal with at the moment."

"Maybe Flora needs a cheer to get her . . . get her . . . _ah-choo_!" Chatta sneezed.

"Just take it easy guys. We don't want to guys exhausting yourselves."

"I know! How about I tell your fortunes?" Jolly, the Pixie of Fortunes asked, pulling out her tarot cards. After she had predicted that there was a tall, dark handsome man in Layla's future and warned Sky to keep clear of fancy drinks, Jolly went on to predict Amore's love life. "I'm sorry Amore, but I just don't see love in your future."

"Jolly, how can you say that to her?" Libby scolded when Amore burst into tears.

"Amore," Jolly comforted, turning her cards into a handkerchief. "The cards aren't always right."

"Yeah. No offence Jolly, but I don't see how a drink could seriously affect my future," Sky said.

"Well, I didn't think that Flora could get stumped by a flower, but there you go," Brandon shrugged.

Meanwhile, the Queen Pixie was doing her best to boost Flora's confidence. "You can do it Flora."

With a focused expression, Flora put her hands on either side of the Flower of Life and summoned her magic. A soft, golden light started to glow between her hands, but just as it started gaining power, her magic faulted and she slumped back. Subtly, Flora looked back over her shoulder at Helia who standing in the shade behind her, and he could see the defeat in her eyes.

"That was no good," Flora said aloud to herself. "I have to think and figure out the best way to do this."

"Don't think," Helia advised, walking over to her and placing his hands gently on her shoulders. He felt her tense beneath his touch but a second later she relaxed into it. "Use your heart, Flora. Your heart has a lot of power. I know it does."

Helia couldn't see her face, but he felt her straighten her shoulders in a determined pose and when she spoke, her voice was filled with a confidence that had been lacking ever since she had been assigned the job to heal the Flower of Life and protect the future of Pixie Village.

"Alright, here it goes," Flora said, and in a flash of white and pink light, she transformed into her winx mode. "I'll give it everything I have!"

Filled with determination and confidence, Flora once again placed her hands on either side of the Flower of Life and started to conjure up a healing spell. Layla, Sky and Brandon all got to their feet as intense power started to grow within the Flower, causing its drooping leaves to pick themselves up and colour started returning to the plant.

"It's working!" Digit cheered.

"That is amazing," Sky said as he watched the Flower return to normal. It really was an incredible looking plant, and when it started spits out its healing leaves, everyone broke out into loud cheers and applause.

"You did it, Flora!" Helia grinned widely. He had the strong impulse to snatch her up into his arms and hug her senseless, but then the pixies started sneezing, reminding everyone of just how sick they were and the reason they had come to Pixie Village in this first place.

"Come on. Let's collect some of those leaves," Flora said, practically glowing in pride. "I'll make you girls a nice pot of tea."

It didn't take long for Flora and Layla to make the herbal healing tea and serve it out to all the pixies, and it took even shorter for the tea of take effect. From the very first sip, the pixies eyes and noses started to dry up, and the colour started returning into their faces.

"_Mmm_. I feel better than ever," Lockette grinned as she continued to sip down some more tea.

"Whoa, headache's gone!" Chatta cheered.

Digit was still waiting on her cup of tea, but just as she was about to let lose another sneeze, Layla passed her a cup. She quickly took a big gulp of the tea and then checked her data and grinned. "Hey look! One hundred percent better!"

Layla loved spending time with pixies who had been her friends for years. Glim, the cubby little pixie that looked like a bumble bee, was bouncing around her, hoping for her own cup of tea. "You can have some."

"Would you like to try some tea?" Flora asked the boys as everyone laughed at Glim's delight at getting some tea.

"Honestly I'm kinda scared of that tea," Brandon confessed, making everyone else laugh again.

"Oh look!" Lockette suddenly squealed, pointing at the Flower of Life. Everyone followed her pointed finger and saw that the Flower was starting to glow. The teenagers watched in absolute confusion for a moment, but that confusion turned to shock when a pixie popped out of the top of the Flower, proving that the Flower of Life was not just an elegant sounding name.

"I guess the Flower of Life is all better," Libby grinned.

"That explains the mystery of how pixies are . . . um . . ." Brandon trailed off, not really sure if he wanted to discuss just how pixie reproduce without the existence of any male pixies.

The Queen Pixie, however, knew what he was getting at. "That's right. This is how pixies and pixie pets are born."

Brandon tried not to look weirded out when another pixie was born. "Fascinating."

"I guess we should head back," Sky suggested. They had nothing to do once they got back to their respective schools other than wait for Lord Darkar to make a move, but they couldn't spent the day hanging out in Pixie Village when they could be needed somewhere else.

Brandon sighed. He was enjoying hanging out in the forest, even if there was a flower going to labour just a few feet away. But he had his duty and he couldn't ignore it. "Let's go."

Sky nodded and he and Brandon headed off towards their ship. Helia hesitated for a moment and stole a glance at Flora while her back was to him so he was forced to head towards his Red Wing without so much as a good-bye.

Layla saw this and took steps to change it. "Hey Flora! Come say good-bye to the boys!"

Flora hesitated. She was still not sure how to confront Helia about her feelings for him, but as she watched him walk away, she realised that no matter how afraid telling him the truth made her, it was nothing compared to how awful she felt not telling him. Moving perhaps on their own accord, her legs started running towards the clearing that the Red Fountain ships were in.

"Helia!" Flora called, but her hesitation earlier cost her the chance of seeing him before his ship started to take off. "Helia!" she shouted again, but with the roar if the engines, it was impossible for him to hear her. But despite all impossibilities, Flora tried one last time. "_Helia!!_"

By some unfeasible chance, Helia managed to hear her and quickly steered his ship into a landing. Before Flora had time to construct a sentence to express her feelings for him, she found herself face to face with her crush.

"I wanted to tell you . . ." Flora started, but under Helia's cool, cobalt eyes she froze up and started to stutter. "Sorry . . . I don't know how I'm supposed to do this."

"Well Flora, what is it that your trying to do?" Helia asked, trying to be as compassionate as possible in order to try and relax her. Unbeknown to him, but his consideration actually made Flora more tongue-tied.

"I've never said this to anyone before so . . . um . . ."

"Helia!" Sky's voice barked out of the squad ships loud speaker. "Please report to your ship."

Helia had the sudden desire to hit Sky over the head, but he realised that there were more pressing matters awaiting them – such as the impending doom on behalf of Lord Darkar – so he decided to forgive him this once. "They're in a hurry."

"Oh, well . . . er . . . in that case then . . . we can talk some other time," Flora smiled apologetically.

"Okay, I'll talk to you later then," Helia smiled back, trying not to look too disappointed.

Helia had almost made his way back to his ship before Flora finally worked up the courage to blurt out what she had been dying to say for months now. "Helia! I really like you!"

Helia wouldn't have been able to stop the smile spreading across his face even if he wanted to. Turning, Helia beamed back at her with all the adoring admiration that his eyes and his reserved nature would allow. "I like you too," he admitted, and since he knew he needed to get back to Red Fountain, he settled on simply blowing her a kiss before returning to his ship.

"Sorry to have to rush you like that," Sky apologised over the radio as soon both the ships were in the air.

"You should know that I officially hate you," Helia told him evenly.

Brandon laughed. "Having one of us ruin your chances to spend some time with a girl? Welcome to the brotherhood."

"I'm honoured," Helia mumbled sarcastically, but underneath it all, he was.

* * *

Dragons on their own were incredible creatures, but there was something about them when they were still just foals that could only be described as magical. At just three days old, Amethyst was the size of a fully grown great dane and had the playful attitude of a puppy. Her scales gleamed pure white while her wings were an attractive shade of purple, the perfect combination of the colours of her mother and father. Her legs were long as it was with all foals and her long tail flicked back and forth with enough strength to break human bones on impact. She was a fine specimen and Shannon was already predicting a very successful breeding program to come out of her.

"Apparently they've already got a yearling from Popularis that they want to introduce to her as soon as she's of mature age," Helia said. He, Sky, Brandon and Riven were all hanging off the side of the stall, watching Rouge show off her foal and commenting loudly of what an attractive young dragon Amethyst was, much to Rouge's delight.

"She just hatched three days ago and they're already trying to set her up?" Riven asked.

"Do you realise how much easier my life would have been if someone had just arranged to set me up with Stella when I was born?" Brandon speculated. "I mean, I would have saved so much time in freshmen year instead of dating all those other fairies."

"At the time, you_ liked_ dating all those other fairies," Sky reminded his squire.

"And besides, what if they got it wrong?" Helia hypothesised.

"Yeah, you could have ended up with Victoria," Riven pointed out, making the squire shutter.

"Okay, maybe it's not just a great idea after all," Brandon agreed. Any chances of them discussing the pros and cons of signing Brandon up into a breeding program was cut off when Timmy – who had stayed behind to go through some last minute data regarding the Trix's attack at the Resort Realm – came sprinting into the stable and skidded to a stop in front of the rest of his squad.

"Sky," Timmy panted. He may have been breathless, but Sky didn't need words to know that something was wrong. Timmy wasn't like the other guys who could keep their emotions and expression well schooled. To Sky, Timmy's green eyes were like an open book. "I just got a call from Tecna and . . ."

"What is it?" Sky asked, a wave of dread building up inside of him.

"It's Bloom," Timmy breathed. "She's missing."

* * *

_Dun-dun-dun. TBC_


	24. Desperately Seeking Bloom

_Alrighty, this one's for ChrisJan34 for being so very patient. Hope I don't disappoint, man. Enjoy. Although I probably should point out that I changed some of the continuity in this episode so that the timeline fits together a little better._

_P.S. Congrates to all of you who picked up on my little nod towards season three in the last chapter. Turns out Jolly's a better fortune teller than she gives herself credit for. _

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Twenty-Four –** **Desperately Seeking Bloom **

"Dammit Timmy! Can't you make this hunk of junk move any faster?!" Sky shouted with uncharacteristic heat.

"Sky, I'm going as fast as I can," Timmy repeated calmly and his answer was rewarded with Sky slamming his hand into the back of the headrest of Timmy's chair. Timmy felt the impact, but he chose to ignore it. After all, if anything were to happen to Tecna, he'd be willing to move heaven and earth to find her again.

As soon as they had heard the news, the five boys had bolted to the hanger. The squad ship was the fastest mode of transport to Alfea and it had the added bonus of still being half loaded with the emergency gear they had taken on the mission to the Resort Realm. But Sky couldn't have cared less about all that. He wanted to be at Alfea, and he wanted to be there immediately.

When they got to Alfea, one of the Winx Club's classmates, Pricilla, was waiting for them on the front steps. "They're in one of the classrooms," the fairy informed them. "Follow me."

The Winx Club and their pixies were waiting in the classroom Pricilla lead them too, and they all looked as worried as Sky felt. The prince didn't even hear Pricilla excuse herself. All his attention was on the Winx Club. "What happened?"

"Avalon," Tecna put simply, and for the look on her face it was clear that she was only just resisting the temptation to verbally remind everyone that she had never trusted him. "He was an impostor."

"He's what?" Timmy asked, his expression just as shocked as the others.

"He's not the real Avalon," Musa explained. "Whoever's been teaching us all year somehow changed his appearance and took Avalon's place somewhere between when Faragonda offered him the job and when he showed up here. We have no idea who or what's been teaching us all year. The P&C (1) are going to have a fit."

"So this guy changed his face and stole another person's identity to teach a bunch of pixies a little hocus-pocus?" Riven asked, earning himself a hard kick to the ankle from Stella. He gave her a sharp look but didn't comment on it.

"He had an objective," Layla told them coldly.

"What?" Sky asked.

"The impostor was working for Lord Darkar," Flora told them all.

Sky was silent for a horrible amount of time, and no one knew what to say to change that. All they could do was shift nervously on the balls of their feet and exchanged worried glances until Sky found his voice, and when he did, the first thing he said was, "We have to get her back."

"Oh, we will," Stella assured him.

"If we're going to go back to the Under Realm, I just want to quickly check some things on the squad ship before we go," Timmy said.

"I'll go with you," Brandon offered.

"Thanks. Tecna, you can stay here and help strategise with the rest of the fairies," Timmy told her, reading her unasked request. Her soft smile was all the thanks he needed as he and Brandon headed for the door.

"Alright, we're gonna go down to Shadow Haunt and teach Darkar once and for all that _no one_ messes with a member of the Winx Club!" Stella ordered, a dangerously serious tone in her voice.

"Yeah!" Chatta cheered. "Let's go kick some Shadow Phoenix booty!"

"Uh-huh," Amore nodded.

"Nuh-uh. It's too dangerous," Stella told them firmly. "We can't let you go to Shadow Haunt with us."

"I don't care how dangerous it is!" Lockette said, her tiny face fiercely determined. "Bloom's my fairy and I'm going to rescue her!"

"That's sweet Lockette but you barely survived the last time you were there," Flora reminded her gently.

"Remember there are shadow monsters and gater hounds just waiting to gobble you up?" Layla asked, trying to frighten the cowardly pixie into staying behind. Lockette screamed and ducked behind Flora in fright, but once she regathered herself, the pixie was just as focused as before.

"I don't care," she said, poking her head out from behind Flora. "I want to go"

"Lockette, I think Bloom would want you to stay here where you'll be safe," Layla told her and Sky nodded in agreement. Bloom might be in danger, but he also knew that the Last Princess of Sparx would kill them if they let anything happen to Lockette.

Musa, however, believed that they needed all the help they could get, no matter how small it might be. Or at the very least, they should explore the option. "Hey guys, would it be so terrible if she went?"

"Statistically; it would be," Tecna informed her, doing the maths. "A pixie's chance for surviving two trips to the Under Realm is less than ten percent. What do you think Digit?"

"Nine point eight to be exact," Digit told her.

"We're all in this together," Lockette told them. "If you go, I go."

"If Lockette goes, I go" Amore told them. "When do we leave?"

"You're not going!" Stella objected.

Amore wouldn't listen. "Besides being there for Bloom I need to be there for you."

Piff babbled something in her baby talk, which Chatta translated. "She says she's going and if Piff's going, I'm going too."

"Well if Chatta goes, I go," Tune finalised.

"Wait," Layla begged. She had already had to rescues the pixies once from Shadow Haunt. She didn't want to go through all that again.

Tecna turned to Digit, the only one out of them who would understand true logic. "Um Digit, this is completely illogical. Reason with them."

"It is true that our chances are quite bad," Digit agreed. "But there are times when you can't rely on logic and this is one of those times so I say we all go together!"

"Yeah!" the other pixies cheered.

"I know you girls don't like it, but I doubt we're going to talk them out of it," Helia said calmly. "And I hate to break it to you guys but the longer we stand around debating this the more time Lord Darkar has to break into the Realm of Realix."

"He's right," Sky agreed. "Let's go."

* * *

"I've modified the ship so it's now darkness resistant which means we won't lose power when we land in Shadow Haunt," Timmy informed them when they made it outside to where the ship was waiting. Pressing a button in the ships keys, Timmy unlocked the ship and opened the hatch. "Okay everybody, it's time to get on board."

"Hold on a second," Tecna stopped them as she checked her hand held computer. "I've simulated our landing and we have a problem. It looks like the ship is fifty percent too big to fit inside any of the openings to the caves."

"Can't you use magic to make them bigger?" Brandon asked.

"But the caves absorb magic," Riven reminded him, cancelling out that option.

"Magic won't work," Flora agreed.

Everyone looked stumped by the new problem, but Sky had an idea. The only trouble was, of course, Brandon wasn't going to like it. "Hey Brandon, have you kept in touch with your friend Amentia?"

"Friend?" Brandon repeated in horror. Memories of endless grooming sessions and an almost wedding that still caused him to wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night suddenly crashed down onto the squire, who shivered in dread. "You've got to be kidding. I never want to see her again!"

"Well, I was thinking we could use one of those giant guard worms to bust open the caves so we can fly the ship in," Sky suggested.

Brandon gasped in horror as he began to understand what his prince was asking him to do. "Dude, are you saying you want me to ask her a favour? Queen Amentia?"

"Yeah," Sky said. Sky understood that his friend would rather not keep up an association with the Queen of Down Land, but Bloom was in danger, and if he had to play the 'my-girlfriend-is-in-the-hands-of-a-psychopath' card, so be it.

But Brandon wasn't going down without a fight. "You don't understand. You've never had your eyebrows plucked."

"I know you're scared of her but we're trying to save the universe," Sky reminded him, calling upon both Brandon's sense of duty and his pride.

Brandon, for his part, walked right into it. "I'm not scared."

"In that case I think that you should go to Down Land Brandon," Ms. Faragonda, who had been waiting by the ship when the teenagers had returned outside agreed. Sky almost grinned successfully, until the Headmistress of Alfea opened her mouth again. "And Sky and Layla will go with you."

"I'm going too?" Sky stammered, a little nervous about suddenly being volunteered to go to Down Land.

"Now Sky, you're not scared, are you?" Ms. Faragonda asked, using his own attack against him.

Unable to find any way to get out of it, Sky rubbed his forehead bashfully and tried to save face. "Of course I'm not."

Brandon simply laughed.

"Lord Darkar probably knows we're going to come after Bloom, so he's going to watching all the entrances and he's no doubt unleashed all his minions to try and stall us at every turn," Layla said seriously.

"When you say 'all minions', I take it you're not talking about just shadow monsters," Helia noted.

"No. The Trix will be out in full force, even if Darkar orders them not to," Stella said. "Those three aren't going to pass up a chance to cause some havoc."

"I think Sky, Brandon and Layla should enter the Under Realm on their levi bikes while the rest of us go in the squad ship," Timmy suggested. "It'll act as a distraction until you guys get into Down Land and get Amentia's help."

Everyone agreed to that idea, and in five minutes Sky, Brandon and Layla were waiting on their levi bikes ready to go. They would have been ready sooner if Riven didn't have such an issue about Layla borrowing his bike.

"Brandon, Layla and I will meet you Up Land as quickly as we can," Sky promised them. "Timmy, are you sure you'll be okay without us?"

Timmy nodded. "Sure thing. Tecna can co-pilot."

"Miss Faragonda, before we go do you have any advice on the Under Realm?" Brandon asked. It never hurt to be too prepared.

"The darkness there is intense but if you stick together I believe you can prevail," Ms. Faragonda told them.

"Alright you two," Sky addressed Layla and Brandon. "Let's say we ride?"

Brandon answered him by moving his bike slightly. "You guys all set."

"Oh yeah," Layla grinned. "Let's do it."

"We'll keep in touch via radio," Timmy told them, walking up the ramp into the ship.

"Kay. See ya in the Under Realm!" Brandon called, driving off with Sky and Layla right behind him.

Musa saw the concerned look in Riven's violet eyes, so she shyly slipped her hand into his and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Hey, they'll be fine."

"I know," Riven assured her. "She just better not scratch my bike."

* * *

By the time they reached the Arid Mountains region, Sky, Brandon and Layla were regretting agreeing to drive all the way from Alfea to the Under Realm. Their legs were stiff and sore and they had long lost feeling in their backsides.

"Timmy, are we there yet?" Brandon whined over the intercom.

"Nearly," Timmy's voice replied.

"You said that an hour ago."

"I said it seven minutes ago."

"Well it felt like an hour."

"Brandon, be quiet," Sky ordered. He didn't know if Lord Darkar had any technology in Shadow Haunt that might pick up on their radio messaging, but he wasn't willing to risk anything with Bloom in danger. The three teens continued through the Arid Mountains with Layla in the lead since she knew where an entrance was. The two specialists followed Layla off a kicker and landed in a gorge before coming to a stop.

"This is the entrance," Layla told them.

Brandon stared at the entrance with a strong sense of dread. The last time he had entered that realm it had near ended up with nuptials, and he didn't want to go through something like that any time soon. "Here's hoping Amentia's happy and not hoping to reconnect."

Sky grinned at Brandon's comment, but Layla's expression was anything but entertained. She was looking above the two boys, and her eyes were wide. "Hey! Watch out!"

"Huh?" Brandon and Sky both said in unison, looking up just in time to see two shadow monsters leap down at them from a ledge above them. Both boys tumbled off their bike but a second later they managed to kick the monsters off them. Scrambling to their feet, Brandon and Sky quickly removed their helmets and readied themselves for a fight.

The monsters were the ones that had the hard exoskeleton-like bodies with the horns and the big heads. Like all shadow monsters, it was difficult to see their eyes, but even without that it was easy to tell their intent was; they were out for blood.

One of the monsters retaliated by leaping onto Sky, knocking him to the ground again. The prince struggled to keep the monsters jaws away from his face, until he could get his feet up under the monster and kick it off him again. Getting to his feet again, Sky wasted no time in pulling out a small, circular disc that when activated extended out into his levi board. Jumping onto it, Sky hovered out of danger and grinned victoriously at the shadow monster. "Later bro!"

Meanwhile, Brandon had to deal with his own shadow monster. With his eyes focused on the monster, the squire pulled out his double light sabre and threw it in the air for dramatic affect. It turned end over end and then fell back down where he caught it before it hit the ground. After another dramatic twirl, Brandon managed to block the monsters attack as it tried to bite his head off.

"Hang on Brandon!" Sky called, shifting his weight so that his levi board flew towards his squire. Brandon was still blocking attacks when Sky seized his arm and dragged him onto the board. "Gotcha!"

"This way!" Layla called from her place a short run from the entrance. "Hurry up!"

Sky aimed his levi board right for her, but the monster he had slipped away from before suddenly jumped between them and with the monster Brandon had been fighting advancing behind them, the boys found themselves blocked from both fronts.

"Ah!" they both yelled in unison, but neither of them tried to slow the levi board down. Instead, they continued right for the shadow monster in front of them. The monster let out a wicked sounding growl and prepared to pounce. It probably would have caught them too, but just as the monster leapt into the air, the boys shifted their weight backwards, causing the levi board to suddenly hover higher, allowing them to levitate out of danger and causing the shadow monster to crash head long into the other monster that was prowling after them from behind.

"That was close," Sky breathed a sigh of relief as he continued forward, and for the second time that year, the prince entered the Under Realm. As soon as they were a good distance into the caves, the two boys jumped off the levi board and Sky collapsed it down into its convenient compact size. From there, the two Eraklyian's followed Layla deeper into the caves until they came to a ledge that dropped down into a steep slope.

"It's this way," Layla said, pointing over the edge of the ledge. "Let's go down."

"Er . . . kay," Brandon agreed before throwing himself off the edge of the ledge and started sliding down the steep slope on his ass. As he travelled down, his screams of fear and amusement echoed off the stone walls and travelled further into the Under Realm.

Sky rolled his eyes at his squires' childish antics, before looking over at Layla. "Come on."

Following Brandon's lead, Layla and Sky threw themselves off the edge and started sliding down the slope. The ground was thankfully made up of a soft dirt and there were very little rock obstructing their path, but that didn't stop Sky getting jarred and rubbed in places that didn't feel exactly comfortable to him. Fortunately, it was all over pretty quickly and before he knew it, Sky was flung painfully into the hard, stone floor at the base of the slope.

"That was fun!" Brandon exclaimed in a rather child-like delight.

"I meant the we should take the levi board," Layla grumbled in the same unimpressed tone that Brandon's mother always seemed to use with him, and she groaned loudly as she pushed herself to her feet. "Argh."

"Oh," Brandon cowered, but he brightened when he looked around him and found something familiar. "Hey, look. The Hemian Crystals."

"Alright! That means we're almost there."

"Honestly, I'm not really looking forward to this," Brandon admitted, not sharing Layla's enthusiasm at all. His eagerness to being back in the Under Realm was dampened further when a large fist seized him from the scruff of his cape and lifted him and Sky right off the ground

"Up Worlders, you're trying to enter Down Land," a gruff, gravely voice boomed, and the two Red Fountain students looked up too see a giant sentry trog, who to Brandon looked very familiar. "Hygiene certificates? You got 'em?"

"I know you're doing your job but we don't have time for this," Brandon tried to explain, but he wasn't the least bit surprised to discover that Queen Amentia had issued the needs for hygiene certificates before entering her realm. She was just the kind of control freak to do that. "We have to see the Queen."

"Not without a hygiene certificate," the trog refused and the boys couldn't think of anything to talk their way past it.

Luckily, Layla could. "Sir."

"Huh?" Brandon grunted stupidly.

"Brandon here is a close friend of the Queen. I'm sure she would – " Layla started, but she stopped mid sentence when a loud roar filled the caves. "What was that?"

'That' turned out to be the two shadow monster that had attack them outside. They had followed the teenager into the caves and bounded over the edge of the ledge to land at the bottom effortlessly. With drooling mouths filled with teeth, the monsters closed in on the ground, forcing Brandon and Sky to pull out their phantom blades.

"Get ready," Sky said through gritted teeth as he gripped the hilt of his sword tightly. But there was no need for him to even have his sword out because as soon as they were in range, the trog sent his massive club slamming down onto the shadow monsters heads, vanquishing them back into thin air from which they were created.

Brandon blinked. "Nice shot, huh?"

"Our regulations are very strict, but are you really a friend of Queen Amentia?" the trog asked, making Brandon suspect that maybe this wasn't the same trog who had found him and Stella on the beach way back at the beginning of the school year. Although he had to say that the resemblance between the two was incredible.

"I . . . er . . ." Brandon stammered, not really sure how to explain his and Amentia's relationship. How do you define a connection to a person when they scared the living day lights out of you?

"They're very close," Sky answered for him. "They almost got married."

The trog seemed impressed by that. "I still have to ask you a few questions. When was the last time you showered? And what kind of soap do you use?"

"Yesterday," Brandon answered. "And I used this beautifying body wash my girlfriend gave me."

"Nope. That won't do," the trog instantly shot down. "The Queen banned body wash. Bar soap kills more germs."

"Listen, you don't want to turn us away," Sky advised him. "When the Queen finds out you didn't let Brandon in she's going to be furious."

The trog looked troubled by the issue of Brandon's level of hygiene, but he took heed to Sky's warning. "Do not mention the body wash," the trog stressed before pulling out a scroll. "And there's one more thing. Men are expected to bring a gift; a wild dragon's feather."

"No problem," Layla waved off as the trog pointed to a picture of the feathers on the scroll. "You guys are like expect dragon wranglers, aren't you?"

"Yeah. No problem," Sky agreed, but his confidence still wasn't very high.

* * *

"Timmy, are we there yet?" Stella whined in a combination of frustration and boredom.

With a cold, unimpressed look that reminded Stella very much of her father, Timmy turned to glare at her. "Stella," Timmy said very slowly and so sternly that it made Stella sink back in her seat. "I just managed to get Brandon off my radio, so don't you start."

"Yes sir," Stella whimpered, but as time passed, her fear of Timmy faded and her frustration returned. But contrary to popular belief, Stella wasn't a dumb blonde, so she remembered not to direct it at Timmy again. Instead, she bravely turned her frustration onto someone who wasn't there; the impostor Avalon. "I can't believe fake Avalon was working for Lord Darkar this whole time."

"Fake Avalon?" Musa repeated (2).

"Well what else am I going to call him? That guy who we trusted all year and then stabbed us in the back? That jackass who stole Bloom from us and turned her over anorexic, underground creep? That good for nothing son of a bitch who doesn't care if he tears this universe apart as long as he follows the orders of his psychotic, malevolent master?!" Stella ranted, her voice getting steadily louder until she no long had the breath to say anymore.

"On second thoughts, fake Avalon's fine," Musa said.

"Call him whatever you want. We're here," Riven informed them as they reached the one of the entrances to the Under Realm which Layla had selected to be their first meeting point. Slowly, Timmy lowered the ship towards the ground and everyone peered over each others shoulders to scan the monitors for any sign of Sky, Brandon and Layla.

"It looks like they're not here," Timmy noted regretfully, but he had to stay focus and positive. "We'll have to go to meeting point B."

"Look at their levi bikes," Helia said, bring up a picture of two totalled levi bikes up on screen. Riven gripped the edge of his seat so tightly that his knuckles turned white, but when he saw that Layla had safely packed his bike without a scratch, his hands relaxed and he let out a sigh of relief.

"Wow," Timmy gasped. "Those are in pretty bad shape."

"Oh, I hope they're okay," Stella whimpered, ringing her hands. "I hope nothing happened to them."

"Of course they okay Stella," Timmy assured her. "You can stop worrying because worrying is not going to help."

"Heroic 101: you've gotta keep a positive attitude," Riven reminded her.

"Reality 101: our friends are in danger so don't tell me to pretend everything is peachy keen, okay Riven," Stella snapped back sharply. "I'm worried."

"Aren't you guys just a little worried too?" Flora asked in a small voice, feeling somewhat ashamed of her own fear and anxiety.

"Okay, we're worried but can we not dwell on it?" Riven barked, not liking to admit his weaknesses, even if they were legitimately sound.

"Maybe they'll be at Rondeau Point B," Timmy said hopefully, hitting the controls to cause the ship to take off again.

* * *

"May I just point out that I'm having to do a lot of hoop jumping to see a girl that I could easily go the rest of my life avoiding," Brandon hissed as he and Sky scrambled up over a series of rocks towards the lair of the nearest dragon.

"And may I say what a good sport you've been about it," Sky shot back, dragging himself over another rock. The trog – who turned out to be called Gargantua and not Abrupto like Brandon had thought – had directed them to the nearest dragon's lair to allow them the chance to try and obtain the dragons feathers that were needed to address the Queen of Down Land.

"According to Gargantua, the dragon devoured the last two people that tried this," Brandon reminded his prince, hoping that Sky would see reason and they'd abandon the idea of gaining Queen Amentia's help and Brandon would never have to see her again, but Sky was willing to go through hell to get Bloom back, which pretty much described a meeting with the Queen of Down Land.

"I hope it's not hungry," Sky replied simply, peering over the edge of the rock to see a sleeping cave dragon. This dragon was very different to the mustang dragons the boys were used to handling at Red Fountain. For starters, these types of dragons lived alone, rather than in herds and they almost their entire lives underground which meant that they preferred to run rather than fly. And clustered around this dragons neck was the boys mission objective; a mane of elegant, red feathers.

"That thing doesn't seem so tough to me," Brandon waved off once he got a good look at the creature. "Let's just grab a couple of feathers and go."

"We'd better not rush into this," Sky advised, but even while those words were coming out of his mouth, Brandon hopped over the edge of the rock and started creeping directly towards the dragon. "Brandon!"

Brandon whipped around and put his finger to his lips, but he didn't dare to make any sound to try and shush his friend. Tip-toeing closer to the dragon, Brandon kept a watch on the dragons closed eye lid, but it didn't open and Brandon soon found himself right next to the dragons head. Hesitantly, the squire reached out and brushed the feathers with his outstretch fingers, and when that didn't wake the creature, he tightened the grip around one of them and pulled. The two boys flinched, expecting the dragon to wake up in a fit of range, but when that didn't happen, Brandon wordlessly handed the feather back to Sky who had crept up behind him and reached in for another one.

"Like taking candy from a baby," Brandon grinned quietly to himself as he pulled out the second feather. He never knew if it was because he had said something or because the dragons had felt him pull the feather out this time, but whatever the reason, Brandon and Sky found themselves caught in a burning, orangey glow when the dragon's eyelid snapped open and a deep grow rumbled at the base of the dragon's throat. "Uh-oh."

"Run!" Sky shouted as the dragon leapt up, its jaws snapped the thin air where a second ago had been the place Brandon was standing. With a deafening roar, the dragon scrambled to its feet and charged after the two teenagers who were legging it at high speed down to tunnel.

"I think it's mad at us!" Brandon shouted, choosing to ignore the fact that Sky actually hadn't done anything. As he ran, he managed to steal a look at his prince, and when he saw the look of dread and panic of his friends face, he got concerned. "What's wrong, Sky?"

'You mean besides the trog eating dragon chasing us?' Sky thought to himself, but out loud he said, "I dropped my levi board back there!"

"Don't stop!" Brandon told him as if they had any other option. The dragon let out a blast of fire, but the two boys managed to jump clear of it, though that didn't stop it from scaring the hell out of them. The two specialists continued to run forward blindly, but when a river presented itself, it became possible that they found their way out. "You think that thing can swim?"

"Let's find out!" Sky shouted and without breaking their stride, the two boys ran to the edge of the river and dived into the river. The cold water hit them like a cannon ball shot at close range, and when they resurfaced, it hurt to breath. Coughing and spluttering, the current carried them down stream and weren't alone. The dragon had dived in after them and its head resurfaced between them. The dragon didn't seem troubled by the cold water, but the current was proving to be too strong for it. Caught up in the pull of the water, the two boys grabbed hold of its mane so at the very least it couldn't snap at them.

"Got the feather?" Brandon asked and Sky nodded. A large stalagmite that was hanging over the river was nearing them and as they were swept past it, the boys jump onto it while the dragon continued to vanish downstream.

"Yeah!" Sky cheered as they swung themselves back onto dry land. The dragon let out on final blast of fire before disappearing into the distances. Sky felt a little sorry for the dragon, but Brandon had other things on his mind than what some oversized lizard did.

"What if Amentia still has feelings for me?"

"The girl is not into you. She's totally into Sponsus," Sky told him firmly, but then his expression turned sly. "Unless . . . let's just hope she's allowed to have multiple husbands."

Brandon paled. "Don't even joke about that. _Ever!_"

"Whatever," Sky grinned. "Now come on. We better radio Timmy before your girlfriend has a fit."

* * *

"Okay, scenario thirty-six: they manage to get Amentia to agree to let them use the guard worm but they have to be the ones to tame it. Brandon's forcing the worm down the tunnel with a whip, and Amentia can't resist how fabulous Brandon's perfect butt looks in his uniform and the way his sweat glistens on his bare chest, so she steals him away to make him her sex slave," Stella hypothesised. She had spent the last half an hour speculating on ways Queen Amentia might try to steal Brandon's away from her and they were steadily become more outrageous as she went on.

"I can't take much more of this," Riven groaned, rubbing his temples.

"What happened to Brandon's shirt?" Chatta asked.

"I think it's like scenarios eight, twelve, twenty-one, twenty-nine and thirty-three where costume changes just magically happen," Digit guessed.

"Scenario thirty-seven; Brandon – " Stella started up again, but before she could launch herself into yet another ridiculous scenario, her one of her friends interrupted her before Riven snapped and tried to strangle her.

"Stella, Brandon will be fine," Tecna assured her friend. "Brandon's not going to be stolen away, or kidnapped, or seduced, or bewitched or anything like that. Sky and Layla will make sure of that."

"But like in scenario three, six, seven, fourteen, eighteen, twenty-three, twenty-four, thirty and thirty-two, Layla and Sky might not be there. Amentia could throw them into a mine or something."

"Stella, Brandon isn't going anywhere," Musa stressed again.

"But – "

"Hey guys, I'm picking up a remote message signal," Riven cut her off, partly because it was true but mostly because he felt like she was going to snap at any minute.

"It's from Brandon," Helia informed them all. "It says that we should meet them back at Rondeau Point C."

"Alright then, let's head back over there," Timmy said, hitting the controls to redirect the ship.

"Did he say anything else?" Stella asked Helia hopefully.

"Yes. He said he fell and hit his head, and when he awoke to find Amentia caring for him, he fell instantly in love," Helia told her with a completely straight face.

"Scenario sixteen!" Stella wailed. "I knew it!"

"Helia," Timmy scolded.

"Sorry. I couldn't resist," Helia grinned impishly.

"You've been spending too much time with Riven," Timmy and Tecna scolded in unison, earning themselves several odd looks off their friends.

"Okay, that was kind of weird," Musa spoke for everyone. "You should avoid doing that too often."

"Right," Tecna nodded, looking somewhat uncomfortable, but that quickly turned to alarm when the ship lurched suddenly. "Oh! The ship's been hit!"

The ships control panel and screen started to frizzle and ship started to drop out of the sky despite Timmy's best efforts to regain control. "It's going to get bumpy guys," Timmy warned. "So everyone please stay in your seats."

"I'm way too stressed to stay in my seat!" Stella told him. "Scenario thirty-seven: I die and Brandon decided to stay with Amentia instead of spending his life alone."

"Stella, that's not going to happen," Amore promised her.

"Yeah," Riven agreed. "Brandon could find someone much better than Amentia."

"Riven!" several people and pixies scolded him once.

"There's major interference," Timmy reported, ignoring his friends and focusing on the problem he was facing, but no matter what he did, he couldn't seem to stop what was happening right in front of his eyes. "Oh no. Looks like the main system is crashing."

"Oh," Lockette whimpered quietly, covering her mouth with her hands in an effort to muffle the sound.

Without even bothering to explain to the others what he was going to do, Timmy ripped open a hatch on the control panel and tried to fix the ships mainframe manually, but all his efforts were completely futile. He couldn't do this alone. "Tecna, can you help me?"

"Sure. No problem, Timmy," Tecna said, and in a bright flash of white and green light, the digital fairy transformed into her winx mode and levitated herself into the air. Several long cables emerged out of her body and plugged themselves into the control panel, effectively connecting her with the ships on board computer. "Timmy, consider me your new computer."

"That's awesome," Timmy grinned. He had no idea she could do that. But even though they had fixed the problem of the computer, the threat of the Trix still remained.

* * *

Down Land was exactly as Brandon remembered it to be; cold, dark and slightly unnerving.

Sponsus met the three of them at the palace steps. He was as skinny as ever – proof that he hadn't let his mother-in-law get to him – and he was still incredibly docile looking. His big, blue eyes had a slightly dreamy quality about them and they stood out strongly against his pale face. But he smiled warmly when he saw them and greeted them fondly in his soft, placid voice. "My dear Up Worlds, what a delight it is to see you again."

"I'm sure it is," Brandon mumbled unenthusiastically, but when Sky stepped painfully on his foot in warning, he lightened up a bit. "We'd like to see the Queen."

"Oh, certainly. I'm sure Amentia would be delight to see you all again. If I could just see your hygiene certificates?"

"Er, we've already sorted that out with Gargantua," Sky answered, looking back over his shoulder at the trog that had led them here.

"Excellent. Follow me please," Sponsus said, leading them into the palace. Brandon's level of dread grew with every step, and when he entered the throne and saw the row of bursts of the royal couples, he physically flinched. And when he looked up at the royal thrones, he saw the woman who was still the star of many of his nightmare; the one and only, immaculately beautiful and fabulously perfect, Queen Amentia of Down Land.

"My love, look who requested an audience with the Queen."

"Brandon," Amentia greeted, making Brandon flinch again. "I know heartbreak's a painful thing but Sponsus is my man you simply must get over me."

"Be nice, buddy," Sky quickly warned, noticing how Brandon tensed in insult. "We need her help."

"You are hard to get over," Brandon said, and he was telling the truth. He really wasn't sure if had gotten over the torture she had put him through. "But that's not why I'm here."

"Are those wild dragon feathers?" Amentia asked, her big eyes brightening when she noticed them in the boys hands.

"Yes they are. We got them just for you."

Queen Amentia looked delight for a moment, but then she peered closer at her gifts and her delight shifted into outrage. "Those feathers are wet and stinky, Brandon. That's so disgusting! I have to punish you."

The two boys started to freak out a bit – after all, who knew what Amentia classified as punishment in this realm? – but Layla kept her cool "It's not his fault. He didn't mean to be rude."

"You're right," Amentia agreed after a brief pause. "He's still in love with me so that's why he's acting out."

"What?" Brandon stammered. Still in love with her? Yeah right. As if he would ever love a freak like her.

"Shh," Sky hissed, putting a hand on his friends shoulder.

"Exactly. It's all part of his healing process," Layla continued to explain, walking forward and bowing gracefully so as not to insult the Queen. "Now if I might speak? We need your help. Lord Darkar is very close to getting the Ultimate Power and if he does, he'll take over the universe. He'll destroy everything, including Down Land."

"I've been thinking about fighting Darkar ever since his witches crashed my realm," Amentia admitted.

"Then you should join us, Your Majesty," Brandon suggested. "We can all fight Lord Darkar together."

Queen Amenta suddenly got to her feet, and she did not look impressed about Brandon suggestion. "Slow down. Just because you're a pretty boy with a symmetrical face doesn't mean I'll fight with you."

"It's a good strategy. Heroes, fairies and trogs all working together. We would be hard to beat."

But Amenta didn't seem to be listening to him. Calmly, she removed a spear off one of the guards standing alongside her throne and glared down at her almost-husband. "In addition to being a great beauty, I'm a great warrior so if you want to fight with me you'll have to first prove that you're worthy," Amentia told them, jumping from the top of the stairs all the way down to ground level. "And to do that you'll have to fight me one on one."

"I don't like to fight girls," Brandon started to explain, but then he remembered that this was the girl who had put him thought hours of beautifying torture including the painful plucking of his eyebrows, and his position suddenly changed, "but I guess I can make an exception."

"You have to," Sky pointed out. He wasn't about to lose his girlfriend to Lord Darkar all because Brandon wasn't going to take on his ex fiancée.

"First she wants to marry me then she want to fight me," Brandon groaned, pulling out his broadsword and extending it to its full length.

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea," Sponsus objected.

"Yeah, is this necessary, Your Majesty?" Layla asked. "I can vouch for both of them. Brandon and Sky are both awesome warriors."

"I'm glad you brought that up. We're going to have to test the blonde one too," Layla noted, before looking over at the trog that had brought them in. "Gargantua, you will fight blondie."

Gargantua grunted and pulled out a massive club. "You got it."

Sky and Brandon quickly exchanged a looks. All they were asking her to do was to join them against a force that would destroy her and her people in a second if given the chance, so how the hell did they end up having to fight her to get her help?

But Amentia was itching for a fight, and she was a girl who always got want she wanted. "Alright hero boy. Now we get to find out what you're really made of."

* * *

"The Trix are out there," Helia reported, looking out over the monitors. Tecna and Timmy had managed to stable the ship, but something was interfering with its system, making it so that they could access their engines and fly out of there. That something happened to be the combined efforts of Icy, Darcy and Stormy.

"Well duh. I told you try weren't going to miss an opportunity to mess with us," Stella said, folding her arms across her chest. "But no matter how many lightning storms or hypnotized monsters, we'll stop 'em at every turn, cause no matter how much power that gloomix bling gives off, we've got our charmix's. We'll be able to handle anything they throw at us."

"Uh-huh, and what are you going to do about that?" Riven asked. He had risen out of his seat and was leaning over the control panel, starting up at something above them. Everyone scrambled to see what he saw, and when they looked up and saw what was developing above them, their jaws dropped open. A massive mountain of ice was growing above them, and resting in it penicil was a colossal ball of solid ice of such weight that it caused the mountain beneath it to collapse on itself, edging the ball closer and closer to the ship.

"That's a pretty big piece of ice Flora and I think it's totally going to crush us," Chatta said to her bonded fairy, her big, golden eyes fearful.

"Don't panic Chatta. I'll handle it," Flora promised her, and without so much as an explanation to the others, she turned and ran to hatch door which opened for her.

"Flora!" Helia shouted in alarm as soon as he noticed her missing, but by then it was too late. She had already transformed into her winx mode complete with charmix and flew outside to try and counter Icy's spell. Helia turned to address Timmy and Riven directly. "Do they always just run off headlong into danger like that?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Timmy told him.

"We've contemplated buying them leashes," Riven informed him, earning him a death glare off Musa. "Or would you ladies prefer a cage?"

"I'm not sure, but right now a muzzle's looking pretty good on you," Musa snapped at him, just as several giant vines erupted out of the ground and twisted around the ice to stop the ball of ice dropping any further.

"Way da go, Flora!" Stella, Musa, Timmy, Helia and Chatta all cheered as Flora re-entered the ship. The Fairy of Nature transformed back out of her winx mode and beamed at her friends, delight that she had been able to protect them. Subtly, Flora made her way to Helia's side where he wordlessly slipped his hand into hers and stared at her adoringly.

And outside, it started to blizzard as Icy started to lose her patience.

* * *

"Are you ready, Brandon?" Queen Amentia asked, the point of her spear directed at his chest.

"I'm ready," Brandon assured her. She had engaged herself to him against his will, threatened Stella and ripped his facial hair out by the roots. It was pay back time.

"Bring it on!" Amentia challenged, twirling her spear dramatically before starting to circle like some kind of predator, but Brandon was ready for anything she threw at him. With an insane look in her big, amber eyes, the Queen charged forward and made several jabs at his face with the spear, but Brandon managed to block all her attacks. They continued fighting with Queen Amentia mostly on offence and Brandon on defence. "Take that!"

With a well aimed hit that somehow managed to get around Brandon's defences, Amentia knocked the squire to the ground, causing him to drop his broadsword. Without hesitating for a second, Amentia leapt into the air with her spear ready to embed itself in Brandon's belly when gravity forced her back down again. Luckily for Brandon, he managed to roll out of harms way just in time, but she was able to nip some of his cape. Elsewhere, the trog Gargantua was trying his hardest to squish Sky like a pancake, but Sky somersaulted clear of Gargantua's attack and cut through the club with his sword, rendering it useless.

Meanwhile, Layla was enjoying a delightful cup of tea that Sponsus had made for her while they watched the fight from the sidelines.

"You can't fight worth a thing," Amentia spat. "I'm glad I didn't marry you."

Although Brandon was pleased to hear that there no possibility of Amentia ordering that she was allowed two husbands, he couldn't help but feel somewhat insulted. "No disrespect, but what about Sponsus?" Brandon asked, getting to his feet. "He's not that tough."

Queen Amentia let out a feral sounding growl and chose to attack with her bare hands for that comment. "You little . . ." she hissed, hitting him with such force that it sent him sliding backwards but he was still able to keep his feet. Amentia jumped right back at him with a fast series of punches, but Brandon blocked her attacks with his arms. "I outta rip your tongue out for that."

"You'll get your hands dirty doing that."

"Then I'll get someone else to do it!"

Meanwhile, Gargantua had given up on using his sliced club as a clobbering instrument and changed it to a throwing instrument. With a powerful overarm pitch, Gargantua hurled the hilt of his club at Sky, collecting him in the chest and knocking him to the ground and causing him to drop his sword.

"Fight's over, Up Worlder," Gargantua growled, lifting his giant foot to step on Sky like a bug. Acting quickly, Sky rolled out of the way and then did a hand spring to get back on his feet, scooping up his sword in the process.

"No, now the fights over," Sky corrected the trog, charging him.

Queen Amentia had given up fighting Brandon with her hands and gone back to her spear. With well practiced skill, she twirled her spear end over end and circled Brandon. "My Sponsus might not be good with a sword, but you should see him in the kitchen."

"Wow, sounds like the perfect man," Brandon said with a slight trace of sarcasm in his voice.

"Well he _is_ mine," Amentia reminded him without any sarcasm. At that moment, Sky clobbered Gargantua with his sword, sending the trog flying, but Amentia was too focused on Brandon to notice. "Come on!"

With a painful looking crash, Gargantua collided directly into his queen, knocking her over. The pair fell into a pile, and unfortunately, Amentia was on the bottom.

"What did you do to my queen?" Sponsus wailed before running over to help his wife, but she was already shoving Gargantua off her in a surprising display of brute strength.

"Get off me!" Amentia ordered, pushing away her husbands and her royal guards assistance. "I can stand on my own!"

"Sorry it had to end that way," Brandon apologised, putting his weapon away.

Amentia scowled at him for a moment, before her expression shifted into something that could be described as mild admiration. "I have to admit, I'm impressed. You're a worthy warrior and I will fight with you," the Queen informed them. The three Up Worlders started to grin widely, but that hesitated when she started to speak again. "There's just one thing, Brandon; I heard about the body wash."

"Er, I'll switch to bar soap," Brandon promised her, although how was she going to know what he did or didn't do?

"Make that anti bacterial bar soap."

"My Queen!" Sponsus gushed, leaping at her to seize her in a loving embrace, but just as he was about to put his arms around her, Amentia stepped to one side and he fell flat on his face.

"My darling, how many times have I told you; hugs are by appointment only," Amentia reminded her husband as he lay dazed on the floor. "Won't warn you again."

"Have I thanked you recently for coming to save me from marrying her?" Brandon asked Sky as Layla started explaining their plan to Amentia.

* * *

"Is it just me, or is it getting really cold in here?" Flora asked, rubbing her bare arms to try and warm herself up. Timmy and Tecna were still trying to get some power into the ships engines, but the blizzard outside raged uncontrollably, and everyone was starting to feel it.

"It's just the blizzard," Riven shrugged off, trying to ignore the cold ache in his bones.

"Thermal imaging shows that the Trix are no longer outside," Helia reported over slightly chattering teeth. "But even without Icy fuelling it, the blizzard is not dying down."

"This is my favourite outfit but I wish I had worn something with shoulders," Stella shivered violently.

"The temperature has dropped thirty degrees in the last two minutes and the extreme cold is draining the ship's power," Tecna informed them all after studying the control panel.

"We don't have much time to get out," Timmy said, sounding sleepy from the cold. Shaking his head, Timmy tried to focus on rewriting the ships power supply through different programs, but it was hard to type when his fingers were so cold.

"The ships engines are not responding," Tecna told him.

"We'll have to access the ships back up energy supply and shut off all unnecessary power."

"Like the heating since it's so toasty warm in here?" Stella snarled sarcastically, her teeth chattering.

"It's so cold even my pigtails are freezing," Musa shivered. "Any progress yet?"

"We're close to coming up with a solution," Timmy assured her. "Tecna and I have to just make a few more calculations."

"Forget it!" Stella suddenly snapped. She was cold and worried about both Bloom and Brandon, making her short patience even shorter. "No more stupid calculations! I'm going to go out there and use my charmix!"

"No Stella, we have a plan," Timmy told her again, pointing to hologram of the ship with the ice ball being supported by the vines above them. "Look, it's gonna work."

"You can plan all you want but I'm in a tube top dress and it's ridiculously cold in here so I'm gonna go fix this right now!" Stella shouted, storming off into the ships hanger.

"If she thinks it's cold in here, wait 'till she gets out there," Riven said, jerking his chin in the direction she had just walked. The entire ship was cold, but Timmy had shut off all the heating in the other parts of the ship so that energy could be spared to heat the cockpit. As cold as it was, they were actually in the warmest part of the ship. But if there was one thing Stella knew how to do, it was how to heat something up, and with one blast of magic, the temperature started to rise to the point where people's fingertips actually started to sting.

"She did it! We are regaining power!" Timmy announced to everyone who warmly welcomed the news.

"The engine just needs a minute to warm up," Helia said, checking the ships stats.

But they didn't have a minute to wait around, as Tecna quickly noticed. "The vine barrier caught on fire. That thing's going to crush us!"

"Tecna, emergency take off!" Timmy ordered.

"I'm ready."

"Alright, let's do it!" Timmy and Tecna both shouted in unison as they hit their respective controls. With a burst of energy that sent all the boys smashing into the backs of their seats and caused all the girls to stumble to keep their balance, the squad ship took off, and just in the nick of time. No soon had they gotten airborne, than the fire burnt through the vine barrier and the orb of ice dropped. The orb smashed into the ground, leaving a slight indentation from the seer force of it, but the ship and its occupants were completely unscathed.

"Yahoo!" Stella shouted as others around her cheered loudly.

"You did it!" Chatta cried, throwing her tiny hands up in the air.

"Nice team work you two," Flora congratulated Timmy and Tecna. Without them, they would have never been able to manoeuvre themselves out of that situation.

"Thanks," Timmy and Tecna replied in unison.

"You're both saying things at the same time again," Digit pointed out to them, making the pair look kind of embarrassed.

"Sorry," they both apologised at once, making them flush deeper and making their friends laugh harder.

* * *

"People of Down Land! Presenting our beloved and perfected Queen, the flawless Queen Amentia!" Down Lands official royal announcer called as Amentia walked out to her balcony so that she could address her subjects. Layla had explained their plan and Amentia had instantly agreed, on the condition that if they were successful, full credit would go to her and her warriors, while if they failed, the blame would be squarely placed on the Up Worlders. The teenagers agreed to her term since they knew that they couldn't do this without Down Lands help, but also because how would the trogs know if they recounted the battle any differently? After all, these people literally did live under a rock.

"I need you to have your battle uniforms launder and iron," Amentia ordered her warriors. "We're joining the Up Worlders. Together we will get rid of Lord Darkar for good!"

"I'll pack you some of those sandwiches you like, dear," Sponsus offered as the warriors ran off to do as their Queen bid.

"This whole thing worked out pretty well after all," Sky commented, watching Amentia boss everyone around as they prepared for battle. "She's not so bad, Brandon."

"Are you volunteering to be Amentia's next fiancée?"

"No."

"I didn't think so."

As Amentia and her warriors marched off to distract some of Lord Darkars shadow monster, Layla, Sky and Brandon were left with the next phase of the plan; using one Amentia's massive guard worms to tunnel through the rocks so that they could make the cave large enough for the squad ship to travel through in order to get to Shadow Haunt. The guard worm for its part didn't need much herding, so all the teenagers had to do was run after it so that they didn't get left to far behind.

Before they knew it, the guard worm broke through the mountain side and the sunlight shone into the tunnels from around the edges of the worm's great bulk. After being encased in darkness for so long, the sudden light made them all temporary blind, but as Brandon and Sky walked out of the Under Realm, they saw that their squad ship had already landed and that Stella was running towards them wearing a smile that was even brighter than the sun.

"You're not the new king of Down Land, are you?" she asked Brandon, not slowing her stride as she neared them.

"No," Brandon assured her with a wide grin as she ran into his arms. Hugging her tightly, Brandon buried his face in her hair and breathed in its sweet scent.

"Oh, dumpling! Oh," Stella whimper, her face in his chest. "I was so worried."

"I missed you," Brandon whispered into her ear and she replied by squeezing him tightly.

"So, Brandon survived Amentia," Riven noted, walking over to Sky with Helia.

"Yeah, he sure did and with both his eye brows in tack," Sky told them all.

"You know, I read this article that said that most girls wish that guys would groom their eyebrows."

"Are you volunteering to be Amentia's next victim?"

"No."

"I didn't think so."

* * *

"Check out that worm. It's huge!" Musa exclaimed, peering out of the ships window at it.

"It's kind of gross," Layla said, her nose scrunched up slightly in disgust.

"I'm gonna get a closer look at that thing!" Musa told them all, turning on heel and bolting out to the ship. Layla rolled her eyes at her friend, but she and Flora followed after her, though not at such a fast pace. All the pixies had gone with them too, leaving Timmy and Tecna alone in the ship.

Tecna gave Timmy a coy look and a soft smile which he returned, but other than that, she had no idea of how to break the silence. She had been angry at Timmy for the last few months because he hadn't been more forward with her, but now she was starting to understand just how hard it actually was to initiate that step between friendship and something more. "Your navigation skills are awesome."

"Your engineering skills are amazing," Timmy grinned back. "But let's not talk about our technical abilities. Let's talk about us."

"Oh yeah?"

As he moved closer to her, Timmy slipped off his glasses. It wasn't out of vanity, but rather because he liked the effect. He wasn't as blind as Brandon often liked to joke, but his poor eyesight made it impossible for him to see anything in focus further than a foot from him, so by being this close to Tecna without his glasses, the whole universe except for her seemed to melt away. The pair stared at each other for a moment, before leaning forward with only the slightest bit of hesitation to brush their lips lightly across one another.

"Your boyfriend skills are not to bad either," Tecna told him when they had parted, her eyes glowing in a way that he hadn't seen before. He beamed at her, before wordless cupping her face in his hands and leaning into her again.

* * *

_(1) P&C stands for Parents and Citizens and it pretty much the parents group that works with the school. I think the American equivalent is PTA_

_(2) Ever notice how we never found out who that fake Avalon guy ended up being? We know is was supposed a cloud spirit but other than that, nothing. Even Lord Darkar just calls him Avalon.  
_

_Okay. We're on the home stretch now. Just two more chapters to go_


	25. Storming Shadow Haunt

**Chapter Twenty-Five – Storming Shadow Haunt **

With the help of Queen Amenta's guard worm, it didn't take long for the squad ship to catch up to the trog battalion on their way to Shadow Haunt. As Tecna had predicted, the ship was too big to dodge all the stalagmites, stalactites and narrow passages that blocked their path, but the guard worm just ploughed right through them.

"Okay boys! We're through!" Queen Amentia reported as the guard worm broke through the last rock wall that stood between them and Shadow Haunt, and when the worm slid out of the way, the trogs came face to face with a company of shadow monsters that Amentia and her men took on without hesitation.

"Thanks Amentia. Good luck," Timmy replied as he piloted the squad ship through the tunnel. "Amenta's guard worm drilled a path but it's pretty tight."

"Looks like she ran into some of the locals," Sky noted, hanging off Brandon's shoulder as he surveyed the battle as they flew over it.

"I wouldn't worry about her. She seems pretty tough to me," Layla grinned as they flew into Shadow Haunt's main cavern. It looked just like the last time they were there to Sky, Brandon, Layla and Stella, but to everyone else, it was like nothing they had ever seen before. Jagged stalactites and dark cervices created menacing shadows and waterfalls added a chill that reached right into everyone's bones. But there was something else about the cavern that made the hair on the back of their necks stand up and caused shivers to travel down their spines; the evil that radiated from Lord Darkar himself.

"Whoa," Musa gasped staring out at it all.

"Cheery, huh?" Stella muttered sarcastically. "Hard to believe that the Trix would want to spend a year down here, huh?"

"Lord Darkar's fortress is straight ahead," Timmy informed everyone once he had gotten over his original shock of seeing Shadow Haunt for the first time. Gathering his wits, Timmy scanned the fortress for a possible landing, but his search was delayed when a colony of shadow bats flew straight toward them in an effort to disrupt their flight pattern.

"Incoming!" Layla shouted as Brandon scrambled to take aim at the colony with one of the ships side cannons before they hit the screen. A beat later, the squire had a lock and he didn't hesitate to pull the tripper, sending a blast of energy straight into the centre of the colony.

"Gotcha!" Brandon cheered as he hit the heart. There were a few stray bats that had been flying on the outskirts of the colony when he attacked, but a vast majority of them were instantly returned to shadows.

"You're so good with a blast, sweetie!" Stella gushed loudly, throwing her arms around his neck and giving him a tight squeeze that suffocated him for a second, but even that didn't dampen the wide grin that had spread across his face at her praise. But although his attack could easily be called successful, the colony he had just vanquished was in actual fact just a small dropped in a deluge of resistance Lord Darkar had prepared for them in order to hinder any attempt to rescue Bloom and stop his plans for universal domination.

"There's more up ahead," Flora warned, edging closer to Helia. Brandon may have shot down the first wave of bats, but the rest of the colony was hidden in the many caves and crevasses and their numbers dwarfed any army any of them had ever faced before. With an ear piecing shriek, the bats took to the air like a black blizzard, obstructing the ships visual displays and making it very difficult for Timmy to keep a steady flight pattern.

"If we try to land now those things will swarm us," Timmy said as he dodged another wave of shadow bats that was trying to dive bomb them.

"And if we do land, we've got a whole other group of nasties to deal with," Stella reported, peering out of the ship windows. Lurking on the cliffs below, Lord Darkar's army of shadow monsters paced anxiously as they watched the Red Fountain squad ship flying above them, all just waiting for the group to set one foot on solid ground so they could attack.

"Oh my," Lockette quivered.

"Don't worry Lockette," Amore said with a supporting pat on her friends shoulder. "We'll find a way in somehow."

"Even if we have to break all the etiquette rules of storming a stronghold, we'll get inside," Tune added firmly, earning herself a couple weird looks off the others. There were etiquette rules when storming a stronghold? But there was no time to question proper conduct and protocol, because with a sweep of her umbrella, Tune took command of the situation like a general on a battle field. "Battle stations everyone! Brandon! Shoot those flying vermin out of the sky!"

"Yes ma'am," Brandon saluted before taking aim with his cannon and blasting another wave of bats out back into the shadows. But after the third wave was destroyed, the bats started to understand how the ships weapons worked and started to scatter, making it impossible for any of the cannons to lock onto them and take out a whole wave. "They're scattering. We can't get 'em all with the ships canons."

"Timmy! Bank left!" Helia suddenly ordered.

"Got it!" Timmy said even as he was taking action to avoid the large wave of bats that had tried to slam them from one side.

As the ship levelled out, Sky's patience broke. They were right on the doorstep of Lord Darkar's fortress and they were wasting valuable time trying to get past a colony of bats when they needed to be rescuing Bloom. Who knew what that Darkar freak was doing to her? All year Lord Darkar and the witches had been focused on stealing the four pieces of the Codex in order to enter the forgotten Realm of Realix and obtain the Ultimate Power, so why the hell was he suddenly interested in kidnapping Bloom? It just didn't make sense to Sky, but he sure a hell wasn't going to sit around dodging bats when he could be saving his girlfriend from that freaks clutches.

"I'm going to the Red Wing," Sky announced as he got to his feet. "Riven, Helia. You guys get up to the battle bridge. We've gotta take those things out so we can land safely and get the fairies into the castle."

Riven and Helia had gotten to their feet even before Sky was finished explaining what he wanted them to do, and they both looked as if they were getting fed up with all this messing around too. "This is what I've been waiting for," Riven practically purred as the three of them moved off.

Red Fountain squad ships were built to be small and practical. They basically only consisted of two rooms; the main cockpit and a small cargo bay that held a couple emergency supplies and their levi bikes. That was pretty much all they needed for most missions and everyday transportation, but there was times when they needed something more, which was where the squad ship carrier pod came into play. The carrier pod was made for combat situations, so it had was loaded with a lot more weaponry and defence armaments than the standard squad ship and was equipped with a hanger large enough to house one or two of Red Fountain's single seater jets; the Red Wing. The carrier pod was usually latched on to the squad ship to act as an extension, but it was also possible to detach the carrier pod from the squad ship and fly on its own accord provided someone was piloting from the battle bridge. If the squad ship and the carrier pod were separated and with Sky out in one of the Red Wings, then they tripled their chances of taking out all the shadow bats and monsters standing in their way. Riven and Helia could take out a bulk of the shadow army with the weapons on the carrier pod while the squad ship and the Red Wing could get in a take out the monsters in places too tight for the carrier pod to get to.

"Launching Red Wing," Sky announced as the Red Wing he had climbed into dropped out off the hanger and took flight.

"Detaching carrier pod," Timmy informed everyone as he separated the squad ship from the carrier pod. In a matter of seconds, Riven and Helia had the ship completely under their control and overtook the squad ship. The carrier pod may have been larger and required more piloting skills, but Helia was an excellent flyer and Riven knew his weaponry, so between them there was nothing they couldn't handle. But that didn't make Timmy any less anxious about separating their friends when they were so close to Lord Darkar's stronghold. "Good luck you guys."

But with all the flight training Red Fountain crammed into its students, Sky didn't need luck. With well trained skill Sky flew effortlessly through the air and fired at a group of bats before swooping off. The poor bats never even knew what hit them. "Wahoo! I just took out twenty-three of those things on my first pass!"

"Twenty-three?" Riven _scoff_ed, not at all impressed with his friends attack. "Ha! Watch this." As Helia focused on not running into any stalagmites, Riven got the carrier pods cannons on line and entered in the codes to fire them. The carrier pod had several cannons located on various places of its body, and at Riven's command the front two fired, taking out a whole group of shadow bats. "We're going to catch up to you in no time, Ace."

Sky laughed to himself at Riven's old name for him. It had come about when they had been paired up during their elementary flight simulations in freshmen year. Sky had remembered it because it had been the only nickname Riven had given him that year that wasn't meant to be insulting. "You haven't called me that in ages."

"Well, we haven't had a situation that deserved the name being used in ages."

"Would you two stop reminiscing and focus on what you're doing, please?" Helia asked pleasantly as Sky almost clipped a stalactite. Focusing his thoughts, Sky shot down another wave of bats, but shadow bats were about to be the least of their worries, because unbeknown to them, the Trix – under Lord Darka's orders – were concentrating their gloomix powers to try and cause the rescue mission to fail.

With a sudden blast, the Trix sent up a tempest of dark magic into the air, catching all three ships and causing them to all shutter violently in the air. Timmy and Tecna managed to keep the squad ship steady, but that still didn't stop their friends from freaking out.

"Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh!" Lockette whimpered, her hands covering her eyes and her entire body trembling. "Make it stop! Make it stop!"

"Just hang in there, Lockette," Timmy told her as his fingers flew over the controls. He may have been able to keep the ship flying steady, but the dark magic was scrambling his display screen and messing with all his monitors. And one the carrier pod, Riven and Helia was having the same problems with their controls.

"Sky!" Helia called over the radio. "Is this hitting you too?"

"Yeah," Sky answered through gritted teeth. Sky was a pretty good Red Wing pilot, but even he was having difficulties flying his jet with all this interference going on. His display screen was so scrambled that he was basically flying blind, which is why he never even knew he was flying straight towards a large stalactite that was hanging down from the cave ceiling.

"Sky! Look out!" Timmy tried to warn him, but by that stage, it was too late. Clipping the stalactite with one of his wings, Sky's Red Wing got thrown into a spin that blurred his senses and made his stomach flip. Resisting the urge to throw up, Sky struggled to regain control over his jet. Gritting his teeth, Sky strained the controls against the pull of the spin and shakily started to level out the jet only to discover that he was on a direct collision course with Timmy and the squad ship.

"Shit!" Sky cursed, jerking the controls to narrowly avoid hitting the ship. "Sorry about that. I think I've levelled out now."

"That's good. Just be careful," Timmy told him in a slightly shaky voice.

"For all our sakes," Brandon mumbled in a quiet voice, but Stella still heard him. Even though her best friend had been kidnapped and they were being swarmed by shadow monsters, she couldn't stop herself from shooting him an amused little grin, but that grin quickly turned into a scream when something hit the ship, causing it to shake violently.

"Where did those blasts come from?" Tecna asked as soon as the shaking stopped. Her first thought was that the Trix had started attacking them directly, but she could see no sign of them on the ships monitors.

But Layla could see the culprits, and for once, it wasn't the witches. "The monsters. Up there on the rocks."

"They must have been power up by some kind of spell," Tecna guessed as the monsters tried to blast them again.

"Hang on!" Timmy ordered them all before swerving to avoid another attack.

* * *

"Sky, all the shadow bats are either destroyed or in hiding, but there's a battalion of shadow monsters coming from the east chasm," Riven reported to Sky over the radio. "Helia and me are gonna go deal with them before they have a chance of joining the others but you need to go back up Timmy. Our ship's too big to get through some of those gaps."

"Got it," Sky nodded, flying after the squad ship as it dodged some more of the shadow monsters blasts and managed to shoot one monster that was standing out in the open on a natural rock bridge.

* * *

"You okay, Piff?" Layla asked as she scooped her bonded pixie off the ground where she fell during the attacks and the efforts to avoid them. The baby pixie babbled at her in baby talk, but Layla understood that she was fine.

But there were one person on the ship who weren't feeling okay, and she wasn't afraid of letting her discomfort be known. That person was Stella. "Timmy!" she snarled as if this whole thing was his fault. "You think you can hold off on the flips and the impact stuff? I'm getting a little – "

Her rant was cut off however, when another blast hit the ship again, causing it to shake and making them all scream. The monsters would have gone in for another shot if it suddenly wasn't blasted back to the shadows thanks to Sky in his Red Wing. Falling in behind the squad ship, Sky tailed after them to help protect them. "Right behind you Tim," Sky radioed his friend. "You've got monsters throwing rocks."

"Rocks?" Timmy repeated.

"Well, boulders," Sky corrected. "Big ones."

Layla – like everyone – was quickly losing patience with these constant delays. First they had wasted all that time gaining Amentia's support and now they had to deal with these damned shadow monsters. "We've got to get in there. I'm worried about Bloom."

"I'm sure Bloom's okay," Chatta assured her, but Lockette didn't agree with her.

"I sense Bloom's going into total darkness," Lockette predicted in a panicked voice. "Ah!"

Chatta did not look impressed at her friend's negative attitude. "I was trying to be positive but okay. Go ahead and worry."

"Chatta, don't be like that," Flora said sternly. "There's no need to get Lockette worked up like that."

"I'm sorry, but everyone needs to keep thinking positive," Chatta reminded everyone.

"We're trying, but these monsters are really testing us," Musa said as Brandon and Sky continued to keep shooting monsters with their ships cannons.

"Incoming!" Tecna warned as she studied her hand held computer.

"Starboard, Brandon," Timmy ordered.

"Don't worry. I'm on it," Brandon said, focusing his guns on the right side of the ship to take out the monsters that were trying to take them down.

"What's Sky doing?" Layla asked. He was supposed to be backing them up and yet he had gone off on his own to take out any monsters that crossed his path. "Is he trying to take out all the shadow monsters single-handedly?"

"I wouldn't put it past him," Brandon told her without taking his eyes off the monsters he was trying to shoot down. "He'd fight every creature in the Under Realm – shadow monster, trog, witch, impostor paladins and Shadow Phoenix – in order to rescue Bloom."

"Well he's gonna get blasted out of the air if he keeps this pace up."

But Sky wasn't about to slow down anytime soon. Even though the squad ship and the carrier pod did have more weapons on it than the Red Wing, he was outstripping both of them in the number of shadow monsters he took out. Zipping in and out of caverns like a bat, Sky picked off shadow monster after shadow monster. Riven and Helia had managed to secure the east cavern and destroy the monsters that had appeared there, but as they were returning back to Lord Darkar's fortresses main entrance, Sky shot out from underneath them, cutting them off in order to take out a group of shadow monsters.

"Wahoo!" Sky cheered as he did a flip with his Red Wing. "Direct hit!"

Riven and Helia, however, were less than impressed. "That show-off almost clipped us," Helia noted angrily.

"Yeah. Enough with the air show, Ace," Riven snarled.

Sky laughed. "Sorry."

"You ain't now, but you will be."

"Riven, focus," Helia said, causing Sky to grin like a child who had just managed to avoid getting into trouble. But that smile faded slightly when Helia added, "You can beat him up after we save Bloom and stop Lord Darkar from obtaining the Ultimate Power and enslaving the universe."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

* * *

"Okay Timmy, enough flying around. Find a place to land so we can get inside and rescue Bloom," Stella ordered.

"I don't think that's gonna be as easy as it sounds," Timmy told her regretfully as he continued to dodge the shadow monsters attacks. "There are too many creatures around the castle's main entrance. I can't land."

Musa had to agree with him. "If I'm reading this little monitor thingy right, those creatures are everywhere."

"There's got to be some place to land," Layla said, refusing to believe that there was nothing they could do.

"Lockette, you're the Pixie of Portals," Tecna reminded her, causing the little pixie to panic slightly, but Tecna pushed on. "Can you sense which entrance to the castle has the least amount of monster guarding it?"

Lockette continued to freak out of a few more seconds, but eventually her desire to rescue her bonded fairy outweighed her panic so she reached up and removed the chip that was in her hair and transformed it into her wand. Hovering in front of her, the wand spun around in a circle like the arrow of a compass before settling and pointing off in one direction "Over there!"

"Thanks Lockette. I'll send Sky the coordinates so we can attack together," Timmy said. Sky got his massage and started to fly back in their direction, but as he ducked under a rock bridge, two shadow monsters jumped off the side of the bridge to try and land onto the Red Wing below. One hit the wing before sliding off and falling to its doom, but the other landed on the body of the jet and managed to grip on. As soon as it had its footing, the monster started hitting the jet with its massive paws in an effort to sabotage the jet and cause it to crash. "Sky's in trouble!"

"Oh no!" Tecna gasped. "Can we do anything?"

"I don't think we'll be able to get there in time."

"We gotta do something!" Brandon stressed, panicked at not being able to help is friend. He was Sky's squire. It was his job to help protect him, but there was absolutely nothing he could do as he watched Sky struggle to keep the Red Wing steady and try to get the shadow monster off him.

"I can't shake this hitchhiker," Sky radioed as the monster punched his display, scrambling its picture.

"Sky! Be careful!" Timmy stressed as if it would help, but they all watched in horror as the monster continued to pound on the jet and the Red Wing started to go into a spin. Stella screamed loudly and all the pixies covered their eyes as the Red Wing continued to flounder. The shadow monster lost its grip and slid off the jet, but even without that hindrance the jet was still spinning. "Sky! Can you hear me? Sky!?"

"Can't . . . control the ship," Sky radioed through gritted teeth as he struggled to level out, but nothing he was doing was making any difference.

"Come on. Let's fly over there and recuse him!" Layla ordered.

"I'm not equipped to do an in-flight ship to ship repair," Timmy told her regretfully, and there was no way Sky could land the jet in their cargo bay. It just wasn't big enough. Just then, Sky's left engine caught fire, making everyone panic further as they tried to come up with a plan to help him.

The only one not panicking was Sky, who had a clear picture of what the others needed to do. "Guys, just forget about me. Just rescue Bloom."

"What do you mean forget about you?" a calm voice asked and although his monitors were a bit on the frits, Sky could tell that the carrier pod was flying in alongside him. "Did you ever forget about us?"

"Riven! Boy, am I glad to hear your voice!" Sky grinned widely. The squad ship may have been too small for him to land in, but the carrier pod's hanger was just what he needed right now. "My wing is shot."

Riven and Helia quickly exchanged a worried look. This was not going to be easy, but it was the only way. "We're opening the hanger bay. If you're gonna crash, crash in here, Ace."

"That's a great way of putting it," Sky commented as he let the Red Wing drop under the carrier to get into position. He saw the hanger open, now all he had to do was land inside it "Too bad we haven't got to emergency landing in flight class yet."

"Ah, how hard can they be?" Riven waved off.

"Easy for you to say," Sky grumbled quietly to himself before focusing on the task at hand, but no matter how good a pilot he was or no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't line the Red Wing up correctly. He just couldn't see what he was aiming for. "My display's all out of wack."

"It's not gonna work," Riven growled before looking over at Helia. "Can you think of a way to reel him in?"

"I can do it," Helia told him confidently, getting to his feet and heading towards the door.

"What? With your bare hands?"

"No. With my laser gloves. The strings support all the weight that I myself can't pull. How else to you think I held back that Lio Dragerus at the start of the year?"

"You know, I never really thought about it 'till now (1)," Riven confessed. "Now go get Sky."

* * *

The air in Shadow Haunt was warmer than Helia would have expected, but there was still something about it that set a deep chill down into his very bones. The warmth of his blood seemed to be stolen away the second he had step out into the open hanger, and always there was a dark malice pressing on the edges of his mind. And then, on top of all that, the air was perfumed with the damp smell of the underground and shadow monster filth. No wonder people had described Shadow Haunt as the heart of all evil.

Clearing his mind of dark thoughts, Helia readied his body and made sure he had a firm footing. One wrong move and he and Sky had a long way to fall. With his mind and body focused, Helia released the strings on his left hand and latched hold of the Red Wing. He watched as the jet started to steady out and then Helia began the task of guiding it in. They took it slow to avoid making any mistakes and with his display still on the frits, Sky was forced to rely on Helia's guidance entirely. But slowly, bit by bit, the jet made its way toward the hanger entrance to safety.

Suddenly, a colony of bats that had hidden themselves away from the guns burst out of a nearby crevasse and flew head long into the Red Wing, knocking it off course. Helia was unexpectedly thrown forward to land on his stomach painfully before being dragged across the hanger floor towards the edge of the ship. By a stroke of luck, Sky managed to stop the fall just as Helia made it right to the edge. Wasting no time, Helia started pulling on his laser strings again, crying out in the effort. Finally, Helia gathered all his strength and leapt backwards, dragging the Red Wing into the hanger where it landed with a heavy crash.

"We got Sky," Riven quickly radioed to everyone who cheered loudly.

Retracting his laser strings, Helia grinned to himself as the hanger door closed and Sky hopped out of the busted Red Wing. "You okay?"

"Thanks to you," Sky replied, grasping Helia's shoulder fondly. "You know for a pacifist, you make a pretty good hero."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you guys but you wouldn't believe me," Helia joked, making Sky grinned widely.

"Yeah well, I'm believing you now. Thanks man."

"Anytime."

* * *

"Okay, now that Sky's safe, can we please focus on trying to get inside the castle?" Stella asked. She was as relieved as anyone of them that the prince was safe, but there was still one of their friend's that was in danger, and so far they had gained no ground in rescuing her.

"It's not going to be easy with the entrance being guarded like this," Brandon pointed out to her. "These powered up monsters are too strong for our blasters."

"Let us take care of 'em," Musa told him, itching for a fight.

"Yeah!" Stella agreed instantly. "We'll go out there and undo the spell that powered 'em up."

"Okay," Timmy agreed. "But only if you promise not to stay out there for too long."

"And why exactly is that?" Tecna asked. Surely they had proven enough times in the past that they were more than capable of managing anything that was thrown at them.

"Because Tecna, even though I know you can handle it, I'd rather you weren't out there for too long because I care so much about you, okay?" Timmy confessed. Lost for words, all Tecna could do was blush, while behind her, the rest of their friends were grinning widely at Timmy's forwardness. After all, it was what she wanted.

"Hey guys, the girls are gonna head out and try and unspell the monsters," Brandon radioed to the rest of his squad. "Once they've powered down, we'll hit 'em with everything we've got, got it?"

"Yeah. I'll cover you guys as the girls go out," Riven offered.

"And I'll head out in the second Red Wing," Sky told them.

"What?" Riven exclaimed. "But you just broke the other one!"

"Which is exactly why we have the second one," Sky shot back. He could almost feel Riven seething from his place at the battle bridge, but he also knew that it was the best course of action. The Red Wing was small enough to get in places that the other ships couldn't. They needed a jet out there.

"I bet you anything Saladin's gonna find a way to blame this on me," Riven muttered under his breath. "Helia! Get back up here!"

Sky saw Helia roll his eyes, but he headed back up towards the battle bridge like Riven had told him to. Grinning slightly to himself, Sky settled himself inside the second Red Wing and readied it for launch. It wasn't long before Sky was back in the air again, and he went about helping Riven and Helia clear an area to allow the fairies a chance to get outside safely. But it was the carrier with its large supply of weapons that managed to take out most of the monsters.

"Alright, the area is clear," Riven reported to Timmy.

"You ready girls?" Flora asked the rest of the Winx Club who all responded with a unified and enthusiastic 'yeah!' In a flash of bright light made up of many different colours, they all transformed into their winx form. The second they had wings, the girls threw themselves out the squad ship out into Shadow Haunt, and from there, they all activated their charmix's.

"You gotta admit, for a bunch of sophomores, they're pretty good," Brandon commented to Timmy as he watched Layla and Stella combined an attack to form a glowing orb up in the sky. Once that was completed, the girls all joined hands and focused their magic in convergence. "And Stella looks so hot in those short!"

"Focus, Brandon. Focus," Timmy said. He watched as the Winx Club's spell started to glow as brightly as the sun, and in a wave of positive energy, the shadow monsters not only lost the power boost the Trix had given them, but they also became weakened in the presence of the light. "Yeah!"

"Let's take 'em down, boys," Brandon grinned widely, taking aim with his cannon. With the combined attacks of the squad ship, the carrier pod, the Red Wing and the fairies spell, the shadow monsters guarding the castle were easily defeated. In a matter of minutes, the squad ship and the carrier pod had been reconnected and the undamaged Red Wing was back in its hanger. Timmy remained in the ship to keep an eye on the monitors while the rest of his squad went down to see the girls off.

"Once you're in, we'll guard the entrance and make sure none of the creatures come in after you," Brandon explained to the girls. They had been able to get all the shadow monsters that were out in the open, but there were no doubt more of them lurking in the shadows, just waiting for them to turn their backs.

"You're not coming with us?" Stella asked in a small voice. She knew her and her friends were more than capable of handling anything, but she liked to have her boyfriend with her in these situations, for nothing more than so she could keep an eye on him.

"No," Riven told her. "We should stay out here."

"But we'll be with you in spirit," Brandon added. He didn't care how corny that sounded or that his friends were giving him odd looks. All his attention was on his beloved girlfriend. Wordlessly, the two of them moved towards each other and he gathered her hands in his. "Be careful, Stella. You are the light of my life."

"That's the cheesiest thing you've ever said," Stella said, pulling her boyfriend into a tight hug.

"I guess I've become a cheesy guy," Brandon laughed. "You kinda bring that out in me."

"You be careful too," Stella whispered, kissing his neck.

* * *

"Times like this make me wish I had told you earlier how I felt, Helia," Flora admitted. The two of them hadn't had a chance to properly discuss the next stage in their relationship what with Bloom being kidnapped and all. "I can't believe how much time I've wasted."

Cupping her face in his hands, Helia lifted her face up to look at him. "Forget the past, Flora. We have a future to think about."

Any chance for Flora to respond was cut off when Helia pull her face towards his and cover her lips with his. Despite being incredibly pretty, Flora had never actually had any boys interested in her before and although she had never admitted it to any of her friends, Flora had actually never been kissed by a boy up until that point. It hadn't really bothered her, but the second Helia's lips touched hers, it triggered a feeling that she had never experienced before. Her bones seemed to melt and she fell against his body, but she still managed to return his kiss with more passion than she thought she had in her.

* * *

Meanwhile, Timmy was forced to observe his beau though the ships monitors, but to him, even that didn't diminish how stunning Tecna looked to him. "Tecna, you're so beautiful," Timmy whispered quietly to himself as he let his fingertips brush of the picture of her on the screen, and when he saw a soft smile grace itself across her lips, he knew that on some level, she understood what he was thinking.

* * *

One fairy who had absolutely no idea what her crush was thinking, however, was Musa. She had been straight up about how she felt about him and he had kinda reciprocated but in typical Riven fashion he had still been hesitant about speaking plainly with her. Musa was almost positive that he liked her, but then a little voice in her head would point out that he obviously didn't like her enough to make a move, leaving her stuck in a position where she didn't know what to think.

"I'm sure you don't wonna do the whole mushy good-bye, good luck thing, right?" Musa asked, and when Riven failed to even soften his expression or unfold his arms from across his chest, Musa got her answer. All she had to do now was act as if it didn't bother her. "Right. Just making sure."

In order for her to avoid letting Riven see the disappointment in her eyes, Musa turned her back to him and went to leave, so she never saw his stony front fail him. He had been trying desperately to keep his expression schooled, but when Musa turned her back on him, a strange tightness had wrapped around his chest when he realised that it was possible that he might never see her again. There were no certainties in life – especially when you're going up against the Shadow Phoenix – and the thought of just letting her leave like that was more that Riven could bear. Acting on impulse, Riven quickly reached out and caught Musa's wrist before she had moved too far from him. Her navy eyes widened when she was jerked back to suddenly find herself pressed up against Riven's powerful chest and wrapped in his strong embrace.

"Promise that you'll come back to me," Riven whispered quietly into her ear, and the sound of his deep voice and the feeling of his hot breath so close to her skin caused Musa to break out into goose-bumps. "I don't know what I would do without you Musa, okay?"

The songstress was shocked beyond words, so all she could do was move deeper into the hug, knowing that Riven was able to communicate with more than just words.

* * *

Sky had been saying all year that he wasn't one to get jealous, but there was no denying that he was envious of his friends at this particular moment. He just couldn't help it. His guts twist as he grudgingly watched Brandon and Stella whisper sweet nothings into each others ears as they clung to each other. He was resentful of the way a flushed and beaming Flora grinned widely at Helia. He envied Timmy when he saw Tecna staring off at the squad ship. And he was slightly bitter when he saw Riven of all people engaged in a tender embrace with Musa.

He wasn't upset about the fact that his friends had found someone to make them happy, but he was resentful of the fact that he too had found it, and was now facing the possibility that it was gone forever. There was still so much he wanted to do with Bloom and to show her. And there was still so much he needed to tell her, things now that he might never get to say. Frustrated and angry, Sky clenched his fists and hoped that no one noticed his suffering.

But someone did.

"Sky!" Layla said suddenly, jerking Sky out of his dark thoughts. "Don't worry about Bloom. We're gonna bring her back, trust me."

Sky gave her a small smile, but he was still worried. "Thanks Layla."

"Sorry you guys, but it looks like we've got some incoming monsters," Timmy informed them over the loud speaker.

"Go girls!" Brandon ordered, and with one final look at him, Stella flew off into Lord Darkar's fortress and the rest of the fairies followed.

"Wait for us!" Chatta called flying after their fairies.

With the fairies and pixies now gone, the boys quickly pulled out their weapons. Sky had his sword ready while Brandon had his broadsword out. Riven had swapped is sabre for his morning star and long knife and Helia of course had his laser string gloves. Timmy remained in the squad ship to use the ships cannons to take out some of the monsters that weren't yet too close to his friends.

"Alright, let's do this," Sky said as the shadow monsters moved in.

* * *

"I seriously don't know what's worse; having to sit an exam and write an essay so long that it results in your hand cramping up before you're even halfway through it, or having to fight a whole army of stupid, spiky, drooling shadow monsters!" Brandon spat bitterly, sinking to the ground as Sky felled the last of said shadow monsters. "I mean, come on! There has got to be an easier way to end the school year, right?"

Sky ignored his squire's comments and focused on scanning the caves and tunnels that surrounded his squad for any shadow monsters which may had eluded his blade. But when he failed to find any, he shifted his attention to other matters. "Come on. We need to go find the girls."

"Give us a minute," Riven snapped, breathing heavily. He and the other boys were uninjured, but it was obvious that they all needed a moment to catch their breath before they ran off to the next challenge.

"We don't have a minute!" Sky snapped, glaring at his friend angrily. "We don't have time to be just standing around like this! We've got to find Bloom before Lord Darkar gets his hands on the Ultimate Power and we lose her forever!"

"We know that Sky. We didn't just follow you down here in the hopes of finding a Shadow Haunt Gift Shop," Riven snarled, accepting a bottle of water off of Timmy. He had come out of the ship to hep them when the fighting had become to close for him to use the cannons without running the risk of hitting one of his friends.

"Let's just catch our breath before we move out again. You've no use to Bloom half dead from exhaustion. Just remember that you just came back from that whole deal with the Trix in the Resort Realm and you don't want to burn yourself out before we even locate Bloom, now do you?" Helia pointed out in a tone of voice that no matter how hard he tried Sky couldn't find an excuse to get angry with.

"Fine!" Sky hissed, folding his arms across his chest angrily even though he was well aware that what Helia had said made perfect sense. "I'm just worried about Bloom, is all."

"We know," Timmy said sympathetically.

"We all are," Brandon added from his place on the ground.

"You should be more concerned about yourselves," a dry hiss of a voice said from somewhere in the darkness above them. Five heads jerked upwards and the specialists quickly scrambled into their fighting stances when they saw their new enemy leering down at them.

Perched in an alcove with a stance so low it almost looked as if he was lying on his stomach, was the being that had infiltrated Alfea under the guise of their new professor of magiphilosophy in order to earn Blooms trust and then hand her straight into Lord Darkar's clawed clutches. His arms were reached out in front of him for support, making him look like a giant spider and his wings were fully extended, highlighting his closeness to the rocks he was perch upon. His legs were tucked underneath him in a deep crouch and his long, steel blue hair swayed slightly in a soft, underground air current as it hung over one shoulder. And his face – which the fairies had described as handsome several times in the past – was now contorted into a hideous mask due to jagged, horrible tattoos, coupled with a murderous grin and insane glint in his eyes.

"Avalon!" Sky spat, glaring up at the man he had always disliked. He had never really trusted Avalon, and now he knew of the danger the traitor had been placing Bloom in all year, Sky was fuelled with an anger that would only be quenched when he had finished plucking the last feather off of that oversized pigeon lifeless body.

"That's not Avalon," Brandon reminded his prince. "This guy's an impostor."

"Correct," Lord Darkar's pawn hissed with a delighted grin. "You knew all along that there was something not quite right about me, didn't you, Prince Sky? That little digital fairy sensed it too, but in the end it made no difference. My master shall be victorious and this world shall fall. It's too late to stop it now. He had all the pieces of the Codex and the powers of darkness and light. The Ultimate Power is his."

"Who are you?" Timmy demanded to know, furious that this creep continued to torment them.

"I am Lord Darkar's most loyal and faithful servant," the creature told them, tilting his head to one side and staring down at them in such a way that they all got the feeling that there was very little sanity behind that once handsome face. All that remained there now was a deep wickedness and blind obedience. "Who I am and what life I lived beforehand is of no importance now. I am merely an extension of my Lord's will. But if you must know, there once was a time when I was the cloud spirit called Dusja (2)."

"But cloud spirits are completely pure beings," Helia noted in shock. Back at Ossacip, one of his professors had been a cloud spirit and she had been one of the most caring, compassionate, pleasant and peaceful individual that Helia had ever met. She had had similar ideals on pacifism as Helia, so he found it hard to believe that any of her kin could be anything less than saintly. "How can you work for Lord Darkar?"

"I've been down here longer than any of you children have been alive. Master is very good at wiping people's memories and even better with his torture techniques," Dusja told them all before locking his gaze directly onto Sky. "As I'm sure you little girlfriend would have found out by now."

"You bastard!" Sky growled. His blue eyes narrowed and the phantom blade in his grip shock in anger. But his anger only seemed to entertain the tainted cloud spirit, who laughed callously.

"But enough talk. Let's see what the honour of Red Fountain can do."

And with a cat like hiss, Dusja, Lord Darkar's most loyal and faithful servant, launched himself into the air and swooped down at the teenagers below.

* * *

_(1) I hadn't thought about it until then too, but I needed to come up with a way so that the idea of a high school student being able to drag a jet with his bare hands was believable _

_(2) Dusja is an anagram. Rearrange the letters and you get the name Judas _

_Oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh! Twenty-five chapters down. One to go. We're getting down to the business end of this thing now. Stay tuned for the final episode with special guest appearance for the Shadow Phoenix himself; Lord Darkar of Shadow Haunt._

_TBC. Oh, last time saying that!  
_


	26. The Ultimate Power Couple

_Oh wow. I can't believe we're finally at the final chapter. It feels like I've been working on this story forever and as of yet, Lord Darkar hasn't made a single appearance. But all that's about to change as we have the final showdown between the Shadow Phoenix and the Winx Club before we can go have some fun at prom. Which reminds me . . . _

_WARNING: Prom this year consists of a high fluff level that in some cases could be considered borderline smutty, so enter at your own risk. _

_Alright then, here we go!_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Twenty-Six – The Ultimate Power Couple **

With a cat like hiss, Dusja, Lord Darkar's most loyal and faithful servant, launched himself into the air and swooped down at the teenagers below. Timmy quickly took aim with his bee kicker blaster and fired, but the tainted cloud spirit was a lot faster in the air than his size would have you believe. With a flare of his wings and a twist of his body, Dusja veered clear of the shot so that all it hit was the rocks behind him. Unharmed, Dusja continued downward to knock the gun from Timmy's hand with a well aimed kick, causing it to go skidding into some darken corner of the cavern. Since Timmy was the only one with a firearm, Dusja had the advantage with his ability to fly even though the only weapons he possessed were his hands and feet. In fact, the only thing the Red Fountain students had going for them was the fact that, since falling into shadow, Dusja could no longer access the white magic that his race was famous for.

But Dusja did have access to dark magic. Conjuring up a wicked, black orb of magic in both hands, Dusja hurled his attack down at his opponent's feet. The teens all managed to jump clear, but the tainted spirit dived in for a second attack while they were still regathering themselves. With a hawk-like shriek, Dusja swooped down on Sky and lashed out with both hands and feet while simultaneously beating him with his wings. Unable to retaliate against such a bombardment of attacks, all Sky could do was try and shield his eyes to avoid them getting gouged out by Dusja's clawed fingers.

"Sky!" Brandon cried out in alarm, running towards Dusja's unprotected back with his broadsword. With a loud battle cry, Brandon swung at the cloud spirit, right between his shoulder blades, but then Dusja suddenly shot upwards so that only the tip of Brandon's broadsword brushed across his feathers. Arcing his flight, Dusja swooped down behind the squire, and with a rough shove, sent him stumbling into his prince. The pair collided painfully and fell into a heap on the stone floor.

"Ha!" Dusja barked as he watched the two Eraklyains struggle to find their feet, but his amusement was cut short when Helia's long, golden laser string lashed him across the side of his torso with all the bite of a bull whip. Hissing in pain, Dusja cast another ball of dark energy down at the young hero, and it would have hit him directly if it hadn't been for Riven, who had released his morning star at just the right moment so that it wrapped itself around the cloud spirits torso and pinned one of his arms to his side, disrupting his aim at the very last second.

Awkwardly managing to remain airborne, Dusja grabbed the magenta string with his free hand, and with strength that Riven didn't see coming, he ripped the Red Fountain student off his feet and sent him flying head long into a rock wall. Knocked senseless, Riven dropped to the ground in a heap and released his hold on his morning star, allowing the cloud spirit to slip out of the weapon and continue his attack. Throwing another sphere of dark magic in Timmy's direction to cancel out the blast from the bee kicker blast that the specialist had managed to find, Dusja flew forward with this claw-like hands stretched out in front of him, ready to tighten them around Brandon's throat. But just as he closed in on the squire, something snagged his left leg and held him back, allowing Brandon to jump backwards, well out of harms way.

Looking back over his shoulder, Dusja saw the golden laser strings that had lashed him earlier wrapped tightly around his leg and at the end of it was Helia who also had Timmy helping him hold his ground so that the cloud spirit couldn't rip him off his feet like he had done so easily with Riven. Dusja struggled to pull away, but Timmy and Helia was now aided by Sky and with the three of them holding him back, Dusja was unable to break free. Caught, Dusja frantically began to beat his wings in strong, powerful flaps to try and get free, but with the golden strings latched onto his leg coupled with the combined weight of Helia, Sky and Timmy anchoring him down, the tainted cloud spirit couldn't get more than a few feet above the boy's heads.

"Oi Riv! Gimme a boost!" Brandon shouted to his friend who was now back on his feet.

"What?" Riven snapped, still groggy from his run in with the wall, but when he saw Brandon running towards him at full pelt, he quickly understood what his friend wanted him to do. Dropping his knife with a clatter, Riven laced his fingers together with his palms facing upward, and when Brandon stepped into his hands, Riven's arm gave a powerful thrust upwards, launching Brandon into the air.

"Ah!" Brandon shouted as he swung his broadsword at Dusja's right wing, slicing straight through several primary and secondary feathers before gravity forced him back down.

Like a bird with its wings clipped, Dusja lost control of his flight and started to flounder in the air. He beat his wings feebly and kicked with his legs in the vain hope that it would make any kind of difference, but not matter what he did, Dusja couldn't correct his flight and ended up crashing down onto the rock floor. In a panic, Dusja scrambled to try and untangle himself from the laser string and unfold his wings from beneath him, but when he felt something cold and sharp pressed against his throat, he froze like a trapped animal. Lifting his eyes slowly, Dusja found that he had two blades directed at him; one green, the other magenta. Following the blades upwards, Dusja's cobalt eyes met two pairs of severe looking eyes. One was a powerful looking shade of brown, while the other was an intense violet, and both burned with a vast level of hate and disgust.

"Bloody traitor," Riven growled, but Dusja simply stared back at the specialists with a completely clam and neutral face. Fuelled by disgust, the two boys were more than willing to run their swords through the wicked creature and end its miserable life, and by the looks of it, Dusja wasn't going to stop them.

But the same couldn't be said for others there.

"Brandon! Riven! Stop!" Sky shouted, startling everyone. "Don't kill him!"

"What? Why not?" Riven asked. "Are you forgetting that this is the creep who kidnapped your girlfriend and handed her over to Darkar? He's the reason Bloom's even down here!"

"He's been working for Lord Darkar all this time," Brandon pointed out. "He doesn't deserve to live!"

"But he also didn't deserve what Darkar did to him!" Sky shouted back, silencing everyone. Even Dusja seemed amazed by Sky's insight and mercy, and he stared up at the prince with a confused expression on his face. "You heard him; he's been down here for years. Decades even. For longer than any of us have been alive, he's been living here under Lord Darkar and his malice, torturing him until he obeyed him blindly. And he's a cloud spirit. I bet anything that before Darkar got him hands on him, he was a kind, noble, pure creature, and I have to believe that despite everything that Lord Darkar has done to him and transformed him into being, that he can come back," Sky told them all, before averting his eyes and adding more softly, "I have to believe that Bloom can come back."

Brandon and Riven exchanged a long look, before retracting their blades. Lord Darkar was no doubt trying to transform Bloom into darkness – in fact he had probably already succeeded by now – and they had to hope that she could turn back or else the universe would be lost. "So what do we do with him?" Brandon asked.

"We can always lock him away in the cell on the carrier," Timmy suggested. "That should hold him while we go deal with Lord Darkar, and then we could hand him over to the authorities when this is all over with."

"And then what will happen to him?" Sky asked.

"Depends on what the tribunal sentence him," Helia answered. "And since he is an accomplice of Lord Darkar who's classed as a terrorist, it's most likely he'll be either executed or given a lifetime in the Omega Dimension."

"The Omega Dimension? But that's even worse then here!"

"Couldn't he get sent of Light Haven like the Trix did last year?" Brandon questioned. The group were too busy trying to figure out their next move that none of them noticed one final spiked shadow monster creeping up on them in the darkness. Dusja, whose eyes were more adjusted to the dark than the teenagers, did notice it however, but he remained perfectly still on the ground at the students feet, just waiting. "Maybe they'd be able to turn him back to what he was before all this there."

"That might work," Helia said, giving it a bit of thought. "Ultimately it's going to be up to the tribunal and the Magical Council, but if we get enough people in power to suggest it, they might listen. I'm sure I can sway my father and grandfather. Sky, do you think you can get your father on board with this?"

"Maybe," Sky shrugged.

"Well either way, it's the best option we have for him at the moment."

"Right," Sky nodded. "Well, let's get him into the cell so we can – "

Sky stopped mid-sentence when Dusja suddenly sprang to his feet and bolted for it. At first, everyone thought he was making an escape and scrambled for their weapons, but they all froze when a loud roar filled the air and the shadow monster bound out of hiding. With another hideous roar, the monster tensed and fired a round of it spikes directly at the group of unprepared and shocked teens. But then, suddenly, Dusja was there. Standing between the students and the monster, Dusja extended his wings and arms to act as a living shield, and didn't even flinch as he let the spikes impale his body with a sickening thud. The shadow monster let lose another, rocky growl before tensing for a second attack, but moving faster than the monster was expecting, Riven ducked around the wounded cloud spirit and ran the monster through. With a pitiful wail, the monster dissolved into shadows and the threat was gone.

Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.

"Dusja!" Sky gasped as the cloud spirit sank to the ground. Dropping down alongside him, Sky bent over the servant of his enemy in order to examine his wounds. The spikes had impaled him deeply and had stained his front with the silver blood of a cloud spirit. Helia – who had actually received the best marks in their sophomore year first aid examination – crouched down on the other side of the wounded cloud spirit, but one glace at the pacifist's face told everyone that there was absolutely nothing he could do with a wound this severe. Looking Dusja in the face, Sky searched for some kind of answer in the cloud spirits eyes, and for the first time, found a trace of sanity there. "Why? Why did you do that?"

"Because . . . because in all the years I've down here . . . in all the years I can remember, you are the first to show me mercy," Dusja whispered as silver blood leaked from the corners of his mouth. His breathing was becoming heavy and his eyes drooping, but for the first time, Dusja actually seemed at peace. But that didn't mean Sky was about to let him go.

"Hang in there. We can help you," Sky promised him, making the cloud spirit smile softly.

"No, you can't. You've got to go save the Keeper of the Dragon Fire. You must stop Darkar," Dusja reminded him. "Just let me go. Let me die."

"But we can't leave it like this," Sky said, his teeth gritted in anger. How can he be so helpless? Why can't he save him? "We have to turn you back."

"Into what? I have no memory of my life before this. I only know what I am because Darkar was so proud of being able to change a cloud spirit to do his bidding, and I only know my name because the paladin Avalon called me it moments before I imprisoned him and stole his identity. My life is a horrible nightmare from which there is no waking. Let it end and go save the universe like you're supposed to."

"Dusja," Sky tried to object, but he knew that the cloud spirit was right. There was nothing he could do and he still needed to save Bloom. Dusja could no longer access the white magic to heal himself and there was no medic skilled enough to treat him.

"Go," Dusja ordered with a calm expression, but it suddenly shifted to one of discomfort as his magic started to leave him and all the spells cast on him began to fall apart. The wicked tattoos that Lord Darkar had etched onto him in an effort to control him faded, as did the spell that disguised him to look like Avalon. His hair turned white and although it was as long as Avalon's, it fell freely unlike the paladin's braid. His skin turned pale and his eyes turned to a lighter shade of blue, as it was with all cloud spirits. Grasping Sky hand, Dusja stared directly into the prince's eyes and gave him a soft smile. "You have a good heart, Prince Sky of Eraklyon, full of understanding and love. You will need it before this is over."

And then, with one final breath, a white light began to glow from inside the cloud spirits chest and he started to dissolve into air. The light steadily grew until it was too bright to look at any longer, and when it faded, Dusja the Cloud Spirit was gone forever.

* * *

Sky remained where he was, staring at the ground where moments before Dusja had been lying. An odd silence fell over his group of friends as they waited for him to collect himself, but his thoughts were a tempest of pity and anger that it was taking him a while to sort it all out. Dusja had never really been their enemy, Sky realised. He was a victim. Just a pawn in Lord Darkar's wicked game. And then suddenly, a thought flashed through Sky's mind.

This was all Lord Darkar's fault.

So far this year, the Shadow Phoenix had kidnapped and almost destroyed the pixies. He had let a Lio Dragerus loose in Red Fountain, putting a whole stadium of people in harms way. He had sent the Trix in to Cloud Tower and almost destroyed that school from the inside out. And, under Darkar's orders, the Trix had followed them to the Resort Realm and had attack the Flower of Life in Pixie Village, almost ending and entire race of pixies. He had imprisoned the real Avalon and kidnapped Bloom. And now, because of him, an innocent cloud spirit whose life had been utterly destroyed at his hands was dead.

Well, Sky was not about to let that happen to anyone else.

Getting to his feet, Sky picked up the sword he had dropped when Dusja had been hit and marched forward. "Come on, you guys. This ends now."

* * *

The last time Sky had been at Shadow Haunt, he had never actually been inside the castle, but he could tell within the first minute that he was inside that it wasn't a place he would like to visit again. Using Timmy's thermal imaging detector, they travelled through the hallways after the fairies. Luckily, they didn't run into any more shadow monsters, but at one stage they did stumble across Codatorta, Ms. Faragonda and Professor Griffin fighting yet another big, scary monster that was supposed to be extinct. Under Codatorta's instructions, the boys left the teachers to deal with the monsters and went to catch up with the Winx Club who had gone with the Pixie Elders to try and get into the Realm of Realix.

"If Lord Darkar's got all the pieces of the Codex, then how the hell are we supposed to get inside?" Brandon asked as they ran.

"I'm sure they've worked something out," Sky replied, not slowing his pace.

"Thermal imagining show's someone up ahead," Timmy told them all suddenly, his eyes on the hand held screen and his mind praying that he didn't run into anything while he wasn't paying attention to where he was going.

"Do you know who it is?" Helia asked. He was really getting tired of fighting shadow monsters. It seemed to him that they had taken out fifty thousand monsters, and the monotony of it all was starting to get on his nerves.

"It's Tecna," Riven – whose eyes were better in the dark than his friends – informed them and a second later, the rest of them were able to make out the digital fairy who was standing alone with her pixie, the bones of a shadow monster at her feet (1).

"Tecna!" Timmy called, running up to her and pulling her into a tight hug. Behind him, he sensed the rest of his squad come to a stop. "It's so good to see you."

"Let's save the reunion for later," Sky suggested, eagre to find Bloom and finish off Lord Darkar. "We have to go find the others."

"Okay then. Let's move out," Tecna and Timmy both agreed in unison.

"You two say the same thing all the time now," Helia told them while Brandon and Riven smirked widely. Sky was too focused on finding his girlfriend to find anything amusing.

"Huh?" Tecna and Timmy both said again before looking sheepishly at each other.

"Yeah, you should really try to avoid doing that," Riven suggested, still smirking.

"Guys! Can we please just go find the others?" Sky begged, and without waiting for a reply, he started moving off again. The rest of them followed after him at a run, and it wasn't long until they managed to find Lord Darkar's throne room, and waiting for them there was Musa and Flora.

"Helia," Flora greeted with a relieved smile, slipping her hand into his when he approached her and gave it a quick squeeze. Riven and Musa simply regarded each other from a far, and Musa silently nodded her head, signalling that she was unharmed. Once that was out of the way, they were able to focus on the situation at hand. "Lord Darkar's already combined the Codex and entered Realix."

"And Bloom?" Sky asked desperately.

"He must have taken her with him."

"So how do _we_ get inside?" Brandon asked, putting his hands on his hips. After all, it wasn't as if they had another spare Codex floating around.

"That where we come in," a small voice full of authority told them, and for the first time, the boys noticed four new pixies had joined the fairies. Athena, the Pixie Elder of Red Fountain and Ninfea, Queen and Pixie Elder of Pixie Village they knew, but joining them was two new pixies, but at one glance, the boys knew who they were; Discorda, Pixie Elder of Cloud Tower and Concorda, Pixie Elder of Alfea. It had been Concorda who had spoken, and one look at her outfit told the boys which school she belonged to.

"We've used these ancient artefacts to open a portal to the Realm of Realix (2)," Discorda informed them, gesturing to a glowing portal that they surrounded.

"Stella and Layla have already gone inside to face Lord Darkar, who has turned Bloom's heart to darkness," Athena told them, giving Sky a sympathetic and apologetic look.

"You must go in after them. Lord Darkar must be stopped," Ninfea said as she and the other Pixie Elders pulled on the edges of the portal, making it large enough for the humans to pass through. "We will stay here and keep the portal open. Now hurry."

"Right," Brandon nodded, but things suddenly became more urgent for him when he heard a familiar scream. "Stella!"

"Brandon!" Riven shouted as Brandon jumped head long through the portal, not caring what was on the other side. "What kind of a fool just throws himself through a portal without knowing anything about what's on the other side?"

"A fool in love," Helia replied, grinning when Riven made a face.

* * *

The second Brandon landed on the other side of the portal in the Realm of Realix, the first thing he saw was his beloved Stella who was stuck to the ground by some kind of brown, oozy sludge. Brandon assumed Layla was in some kind of simular state, but at the moment, the only thing he could focus on was his girlfriend. The second thing he saw was some foul creature who he guessed was Lord Darkar moving in over the trapped fairies.

"Now I'll finish you off," the monster snarled, making Stella scream again, and that triggered Brandon into action.

"Back off!" Brandon shouted, running to place himself between Stella and the advancing monster with his broadsword raised. Glaring into the creatures red and black eyes, Brandon got his first look at Lord Darkar, and he could tell that Layla's description of him was right on the money. His body seemed too made up entirely of a red, exoskeleton like armour with a ratty, stringy cape descending from his shoulders. His fingers were clawed, his teeth were pointed, his faced was masked and his waist was ridiculously thin. He stood taller than Brandon, and his black eyes burned with flames the colour of a deep, evil-looking red, but Brandon was going to slice him up more that pathetic excuse for a cape of his if he dared lay one, clawed finger on Stella. "I said _back off_!!"

With a disgusted look, Lord Darkar levitated himself into the air as he watched the rest of the teenagers enter the Realm of Realix through the portal. Where they landed was the ruins of what looked to be a temple, but now the realm had fallen into such disrepair that all that remained was half collapsed stone structure surrounded by cloud. "This is ridiculous!" he growled. "This is not some kind of prep school mixer!"

"Give it up Darkar," Sky spat, glaring at the creep who kidnapped his girlfriend. "We're going to put an end to this!"

"The only thing that's going to get put to an end is you!" Darkar shouted, hurling a powerful spell in their direction. Musa and Flora managed to side step it, but the rest where hit with a violet coloured spell that intensified the gravity being forced down on them. Floored by the sudden weight, the group fell to the ground alongside the still trapped Stella and Layla, and no matter how hard they tried they couldn't lift even one finger under the increased gravity.

"There's some kind of spell on me," Sky grunted, struggling to move. "I can't get up."

"Don't bother. I'll finish you off right where you are," Darkar grinned.

"No matter what you throw at us, we're going to save Bloom!"

"Save her? You make it sound like she doesn't want be here," Darkar almost purred, before turning to regard his new main girl. "Bloom, my dear, what is it that you want?"

"The Ultimate Power!" Bloom screamed in a gravely voice that was not her own. She was floating above the top of a pyramid-like altar, her hands raised above her head as she tried to gather the power. She was in her winx form, but it was not the outfit the boys were used to seeing. Her clothes and boots – which was usually a soft shade of pale blue – was now deepest black. Her wings now had an evil look about them, and her eyes had transformed from their beautiful shade of blue that Sky adored so much, to a wicked gold with cat-like pupils.

"Bloom!" Sky tried, but Bloom was too far into darkness to even hear his voice, let alone recognise it.

"You're not going to get away with this, Darkar!" Musa shouted, her body visibly shaking in rage.

"Oh, I think I am, and I highly doubt that a group of high school students are going to stop me!" Darkar growled, hurling another attack at the defenceless teens trapped on the ground. But Flora and Musa weren't about the let the Lord of Shadow Haunt hurt any more of their friends.

"_Deflectus!_" Musa shouted as she and Flora jumped in front of the attack to block it before it hit their friends. It held for a second, but then Flora's magic failed against the darkness of the Shadow Phoenix and her shield faulted, resulting in her bearing the bulk of Lord Darkar's attack.

"Ah! Flora!" Helia shouted as he watched her collapse onto the ground. He strained against the incredible weight bearing down on him to try to get to her, but he just couldn't move. His heart poured as he was forced to watch her lie lifelessly on the ground just a few feet away from him. He just felt so helpless. Flora stirred slightly and her green eyes fluttered open as she sought out his face.

"'M okay," she whispered before coughing feebly, but in actual fact, Lord Darkar's attack had drained her of most her energy. It was an effort for her to just remain conscious and keep breathing, so there was no way she'd be able to help rescue Bloom anymore.

"I'm gonna make you pay for that, Darkar," Musa growled, glaring at the Shadow Phoenix murderously.

"How are you going to do that when you don't exist anymore?" Lord Darkar asked her, conjuring up another of his dark spells and hurling it at her. Not expecting to find herself in the path of the most powerful spell she had ever encountered, Musa froze like a deer in headlights. Panic took over her mind to the point that even the idea of putting up a shield to protect herself never even occurred to her and all Musa could do was scream.

"No!" Riven shouted as he watched Musa do nothing to try and avoid the attack. She had promised him that she was going to come out of this okay, and he sure as hell was going to make sure she kept that promise. With strength that he didn't know he had, Riven forced himself on his feet. His knees nearly buckled under the gravity and the damaged muscles in his right leg cramped painfully, but none of that registered in his mind. Running forward, Riven leapt in front of Musa at just the last second took the attack head on. His heart seized as if it was caught in an ice, cold vice and his mind flooded with shadow, and he knew no more.

* * *

"_Riven!_" Musa exclaimed in horror as the specialist dropped to the ground, unconscious. Dropping down next to him, Musa forgot all about Lord Darkar and the Ultimate Power as she reached out to touch Riven's lifeless face with a trembling hand. His skin was cold beneath her hand and his breathing was slow and shallow. Placing her hand on his chest, Musa searched for a heartbeat, and when she found it, it was dangerously faint. Gripping the front of his uniform tightly, Musa willed him to respond to her with all the power in her heart, but when he continued to sleep, tears started to gather in the navy pools of her eyes.

Lord Darkar, however, found Riven's demise to be amusing and laughed out loud. "I guess that fool was what they call loyal to the end."

The teenagers all glared at the Shadow Phoenix, their fingers just itching to rip that creep apart for all the evil he had done, but any chance for them to even insult him was cut off when a dark, twisted yet strangely familiar voice came from somewhere up above. "Unlike you, Darkar."

Lord Darkar paused for a second, and then placed the voice. "Is that you Icy?"

It was Icy, but at the same time, it was not. A figure emerged from the portal, and it was like nothing any of them had ever seen before. It was human, but it was black like a silhouette and surrounded by an aura of purple, crimson and icy blue light. On her arms were Darcy and Stormy's gloomix's, and around her neck was the gloomix that belonged to Icy. Her hair was done up in pig tails that almost reached the floor, and when she spoke, her voice was a combination and overlap of the three Trix sisters. "Nobody uses us!"

"What do you want?" Lord Darkar demanded, not trouble at all by their sudden arrival.

"We want the Ultimate Power, just like you!" the Trix screamed. Instead of replying, Lord Darkar simply threw a spell at them, but the Trix easily teleported themselves away from the attack and reappeared behind him. "Ha!"

With a blast of cold air, the Trix attacked their former master from behind, encasing him in a block of ice. Lord Darkar's entombment was short lived, however, and with a blast of dark flames, he smashed his way out of the ice.

"So, do you think she has a chance?" Layla asked after she had flicked the last of the sludge off her. Although she was now free, the sludge had drained her and Stella of their energy, making them too weak to even consider going up against Lord Darkar. All their chances now lay, oddly enough, with the Trix.

"Maybe," Tecna shrugged. The Trix weren't the most dangerous witches in the universe for nothing, after all. "But it's small."

"Five percent?" Timmy estimated off the top of his head.

"As long as she's distracting Darkar, she's buying us time to try and figure this out," Stella pointed out, looking over at Bloom who was still summoning the energy to call upon the Ultimate Power.

"What do we do if she actually beats him?" Flora asked, daring to explore the possibility of that actually happening.

But even that was not a good scenario, as Tecna pointed out. "If either of them gains complete control of the Ultimate Power there will be no way to stop them."

"So either way, we're screwed," Brandon finally said out loud, watched the Trix try to tie Lord Darkar up with their pigtails, but their hold on his was short lived. The Trix persisted though, and the fight continued.

* * *

The darkness was suffocating.

Lost in a sea of nothing, Riven continued to float through shadow without the slightest sense of awareness of anything that surrounded him. His mind was dazed and distant, and every breath he took was an effort. He wasn't aware of anything. Not the emptiness that pressed in around him. Not the cold that had seeped into every inch of his body. Not even the dull thud of his heartbeat that steadily grew slower and fainter.

All that existed was black nothingness.

_Riven . . . _

Stirring slightly at the sound, Riven mind managed to focus for a second, but then the darkness returned and he let himself fall further into the black abyss that surrounded him.

_Riven . . . _

There it was again. Shaking himself, Riven struggled to keep his mind from slipping back into thoughtlessness even though every move he made was slow, like he was moving underwater. Darkness pressed in on his mind again and the desire to just fall back out of time and remain in the blackness was almost overwhelming, but somewhere above him he sensed someone reaching out to him. All he lacked was the strength to find them.

_Please . . . wake up . . ._

Something warm wrapped around him and the embrace gave him strength. Forcing his mind upwards, Riven tried to reach whatever was calling to him but it was like swimming towards a surface that was too far out of his reach. His chest burned and his strength started to leave him, and when the darkness pressed in on him again, it started to feel very welcoming.

_Riven . . . _

With an incredible amount of effort, Riven forced his eyes open. Gone was the blackness, but the distance and unawareness of his mind remained. Unable to focus his eyes, Riven looked around him in a lost, groggy state. The desire to sleep again was very strong, and he had almost let himself slip into it again when he felt something warm and soft touch his lips. Blinking, Riven tried to discover what the sweet feeling was that made his chest feel so warm, but darkness flooded his vision again and he sunk back beneath its surface.

* * *

"All you ever did was sit around and give us orders!" the Trix raged as their fight with Lord Darkar continued. So far, Lord Darkar had been able to survive anything that the Trix had thrown at him, but the Trix were persistent – bless their little souls – and weren't about to give up. "Well guess what; we're now the boss of you!"

With a wicked sounding crack, the Trix blasted another hex at the Shadow Phoenix, but despite all their efforts, they didn't even make a dint in his armour. With an evil hiss, Lord Darkar began to summon up a terribly dark attack to counter the witches efforts, when Bloom suddenly let out a delighted, animal-like growl, which was just the signal Lord Darkar had been waiting for. "It's time to give us the Ultimate Power!" she screamed, her golden eyes burning with malicious intent.

"No Bloom!" Sky shouted, but she couldn't even hear him. "No!"

"I'll take that Bloom," the Trix told her, flying towards the dark fairy.

"No you won't," Darkar objected, blasting them from behind and sending them crashing into a pillar with terrible force. Knocked out cold, the Trix dropped to the ground in their combined state, and there they stayed for the rest of the battle. "No one's the boss of me!"

With a delighted growl, Bloom summoned the Ultimate Power. It burned between her hands in a bright purple and red light, and everyone who was still conscious could feel its power pulsate.

"Wait for me, my dear," Lord Darkar grinned, transforming into his Shadow Phoenix form and flying up to his position behind Bloom, officially joining the powers of darkness and light. "Let's do it."

"Bloom! No!" Sky shouted, but she still didn't hear him. Sky's chest constricted as he watched his girlfriend get used by Lord Darkar for his own twisted purposes. He knew that this was never what Bloom had wanted. She was a good person. She had risked so much in the past for others and now, when she needed help the most there was no one there that could help her. She had saved the Realm of Magix from the Army of Decay the year before. She had braved Shadow Haunt to help rescue the pixies. And she had saved Sky when Icy had spelled him into a hundred year sleep, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let that debt be unpaid.

"The power is ours!" Lord Darkar cheered loudly. After years of planning and waiting, his dreams were finally being realised. He had spent decades torturing that cloud spirit to do his bidding. He had waited years for the heir to the throne of Sparx to realise her power and master it. And now, after all this time, the Ultimate Power was his.

"No!" Stella and Flora both screamed in unison, refusing to believe that this was how it was going to end.

"And now, Bloom will hand it over to me and I will rule all the realms!"

"Sky," Lockette begged, her little voice wavering, but Sky knew what she was asking him. He was the only one who could turn her back to the fairy that she once was. He was the only one who could reach her heart and connect her back to her true self. Only he could do it.

The question was, just how was he going to do that?

"If I can talk to her, maybe she'll listen and I can reach beyond the spell," Sky suggested. It was a long shot, but at the moment it was the only option open to them. Forcing himself onto his feet, Sky stood up and stumbled towards her. Lord Darkar's spell was still weighing heavily on him, but he endured the pain and pressure until he was standing directly in front of his girlfriend at the foot of the altar.

"Sky?" Brandon called, but Sky ignored him. All his attention was fixed on his girlfriend.

"What are you going to do? Ask her to the prom?" Lord Darkar taunted. "Sorry, she's busy."

"Bloom," Sky called, but again she didn't respond to his voice. Her mind was focused on the Ultimate Power.

"Give me the power now, Bloom!" Lord Darkar ordered, and Bloom began to comply. Doubt gnawed at Sky mind. What if he couldn't save her? Bloom and the universe as he knew it would be lost forever and it would be all his fault. How was he supposed to fight darkness that deep? He didn't have any magic. All he had was his sword and that was no use to him now. What the hell was he supposed to do? But then, deep at the back of his mind, a voice echoed, giving his strength.

_You have a good heart, Prince Sky of Eraklyon . . . full of understanding and love . . . You will need it before this is over . . . _

"Wait Bloom, try to listen to my voice," Sky begged. "It's me, your boyfriend."

"Huh?" Bloom grunted, and for a second, Sky thought that maybe he had finally gotten through to her, but then she laughed evilly again and he knew that he would have to try harder.

"Darkar put you under a spell."

"Ah?" Bloom growled, but he could see that there was a bit of confusion in her gold eyes.

"This is not who you are. You're not evil. You may not be able to see it now Bloom but you have a true heart," Sky told her.

"He doesn't know anything," Lord Darkar hissed at Bloom, trying to keep her focused on seizing the ultimate power, but that annoying little human was putting doubts in her head, and no matter how much dark magic Lord Darkar radiated, memories started returning to Bloom and he couldn't chase them away (3).

"I know what your heart is like," Sky continued. Bloom was watching him more intensely now, her expression a combination of confusion and irritation. "I've felt it. Your heart is full of light, Bloom. Your heart is so pure and good that it saved me."

"Huh?" Bloom grunted again, as an image of the boy speaking flashed in her mind, only in this picture he was lying cold and still at the base of an oversized set of scales.

"You didn't let me go and I'm not going to let you go so you have to fight this, Bloom. You have to break free. You have to come back because I . . . love you," Sky finally admitted. He had known it ever since that night in the Resort Realm when they had been listening to the herblasaurs cooing to one another, but he hadn't had the courage to speak it until now. Never in his life had he met a girl who affected him the way Bloom did. She challenged him to be a better person and gave him something to protect. Not that she really needed protecting, mind you. She was brave, strong, loyal and caring. In Sky's eyes there was no other girl in the universe that was on the same level as Bloom, and he just wanted her to know that before it was too late.

But it was getting to be too late. Sky suddenly felt exhausted as his strength left him after trying to fight Lord Darkar's spell for too long. His balance wavering, Sky was unable to stop his legs from giving way and suddenly collapsed to the ground, his body utterly spent.

"Sky!" Brandon cried as he watched his friend fall, but there was nothing that he could do to help him. There was nothing any of them could do now. Lord Darkar was going to get the Ultimate Power and there was no way they could change that. The universe was going to fall into shadow under the reign of the Lord of Shadow Haunt and there was nothing they could do about it.

Lord Darkar seemed to have realised this as well and was practically purring in evil delight. "It looks like his time is up. In fact, all your time is up!"

"Something's happening!" Lockette suddenly squealed, grabbing everyone's attention. No one could see what she was talking about and all assumed that Lord Darkar was beginning to seize control of the Ultimate Power, but that assumption ended when they noticed the Shadow Phoenix start to panic.

"Bloom! What are you doing?" Darkar suddenly exclaimed, watching in horror as the dark fairy beneath him started to glow a yellow aura so bright that it actually hurt his eyes. That horror turned to unbridled panic when her black outfit suddenly reverted back to pale blue and she lowered her hands from above her head, taking with them the Ultimate Power. "You can't take that!!"

"She's breaking free!" Lockette cheered, her big eyes glowing in happiness and relief. Lowering herself down off the pyramid, Bloom let the bright light surrounding her fade slightly, but there was still a warmth that radiated from her, and when her friends felt it, they felt their strength start to return to them.

Lord Darkar, however, was less than impressed. "You get back here!! That power's mine!!"

But no one was listening to him rage. They were all too preoccupied with the sudden change in Bloom. "How did she do it?" Stella wondered out loud.

Feeling her powers return to her, Flora got to her feet, beaming widely. "She used the power in her heart to fight the darkness."

"I can feel it," Timmy said as the heaviness that had been pushing down on him lifted and he was suddenly able to stand up again, and the others followed suit as soon as the spell wore off them.

Meanwhile, the darkness that had engulfed Riven began to dissolve and he slowly became conscious of his surroundings. He was aware of the fact that he was leaning against something warm and soft that smelt very good to him, and when he finally had the strength to lift his eyelids, he looked up to discover a pair of familiar navy eyes staring down at him.

"Musa?" he croaked weakly. For some reason, Musa freaked out when she saw him looking up at her, and suddenly scrambled out from underneath him so that she could crawl away from him. Her sudden departure resulted in Riven falling backwards and cracking his head on the stone floor beneath him to which his swore loudly. Rubbing the back of his head, Riven sat up slowly, but he was still too weak and disorientated to find his feet.

Not that anyone ever saw his suffering. All their attention was on Bloom and the Ultimate Power which flickered for a moment in Bloom's hands, before disappearing.

"No!!" Lord Darkar howled as he watched all his hopes and dream vanish before his very eyes. "What did you do to it?!"

"I gave it back. The Ultimate Power is staying in Realix where it belongs," Bloom informed everyone, her voice returned to its usual form. Descending to the ground, Bloom landed right in front of Sky, who was beginning to find that the strength in his legs was returning to him once more. Looking up slowly, Sky's blue eyes widened at the beautiful sight that awaited him.

"Bloom?" Sky gasped, almost afraid to believe it was really her standing in front of him.

"Sky!" Bloom cried, throwing her arms around him and squeezing him tightly. Sky blinked for a moment, still not willing to let himself believe that this was really true, but when the dream didn't dissolve, he quickly returned the hug, taking in the delight of finally having her back in his arms.

"She's back!" Stella cheered, unable to contain herself.

"I just knew you'd come back to us!" Lockette told Bloom and everyone cheered loudly.

"Yeah!" Brandon shouted, unable to keep a smile off his face. Still grinning, the squire jogged over to help Helia drag Riven to his feet. "You alright, man?"

"'M fine. I'm fine," Riven waved off, but he paused when he got a good look at his surroundings. "Where the hell are we?"

But there was no time to kick-start Riven's memory, because at that moment, Codatorta, Ms. Faragonda and Professor Griffin passed through the portal, and the combat instructor instantly began barking orders at his students. "There they are. Ideina Formation, boys!"

"Let's go!" all the boys shouted at once. They may have been a tad giddy from the delight of having Bloom back on their side or may have been still gathering their wits after being knocked out cold, but they were still heroes and quickly got themselves into a defensive position just as their instructor ordered. Lord Darkar was desperate and dangerous, and he still had the most powerful dark magic in the universe.

"It doesn't have to end this way!" Lord Darkar told them, giving them a chance to accept his mercy. "Give me Bloom and I'll spare you!"

In response to his offer, Timmy pulled out his bee kicker blaster, Brandon grabbed his double beam sabre, Sky removed his sword and shield, Riven extended his sabre and Helia had his laser gloves ready. And in case that wasn't clear enough, Sky told him a strong "No!" as he extended his sword. Surrounding the girls, the boys were willing to take on anything in order to protect them, even if it was the Shadow Phoenix himself.

"I'm really looking forward to taking this guy down," Layla admitted.

"It's going to take all six of us giving everything we have," Stella told her fellow Winx Club members.

"We'll use our charmix," Flora suggested.

"The power of six charmix converging at once," Bloom grinned. That was going to be some serious magic.

But Lord Darkar would not be denied. "I'm going to take Bloom!"

"You stay away from my girl!" Sky shouted back at the oversized pigeon.

"Ready Faragonda?" Professor Griffin asked in an oddly clam voice.

"More than ready," the elderly Headmistress of Alfea smirked, looking as though she was really going to enjoy this. With a blast of dark energy from his beak, Lord Darkar fired an attack directly at the group, but the group of heroes in training easily deflected it with their weapons.

While simultaneously spinning his double edge light sabre to block Lord Darkar's attack, Brandon glanced back over his shoulder to address the girls who were all focusing their magic and minds in order to pull off a successful convergence. "Go for it! We'll cover you."

With a flap of his giant wings, Lord Darkar flew over to hover in front of Ms. Faragonda and Professor Griffin, who he believed would be the only real threat as far as magic went. Even with Bloom, what did those high school fairies think they could accomplish? "Bloom belongs to me!" Darkar shouted, attacking the two Headmistresses.

"_Go-oxus!_" the witch and fairy spelled together, and a shield suddenly erected itself, protecting all of them. "_Contago!_"

"Ready?" Layla asked, looking at her friends.

"We have to put all our power into this so we'll only have one shot," Musa reminded them all. Lord Darkar was still incredibly powerful, so it was going to take all their magic to take him out.

"We're going to need complete and total synchronicity," Tecna told them.

"And we'll need absolute trust," Stella added, but they were the Winx Club, and they had all that even without having to think about it.

"Let's do it!" Flora cheered.

"Charmix time!" Bloom shouted, and in a blast of white light, the fairies all activated their charmix's.

"I sure hope this works," Brandon whispered through gritted teeth as the six fairies all joined hands in a circle and started to concentrate all their power into their last attack.

"Trust 'em, bro. They got it," Sky replied confidently. When the Winx Club all joined together, there was nothing they couldn't do. In the centre of their circle, an intense concentration of energy was forming, and it was powerful enough to even challenge Lord Darkar.

"Winx Club Charmix Convergence!" the girls all cried at once. The spell reached its full strength and moved out from the centre of the fairies. The boys all felt it as it past over them, but it was a warm and loving feeling that was so apart of what the Winx Club embodies. With a powerful sweep, the spell past out of the shield and hit Lord Darkar head on.

"No!! This can't be happening!!" Lord Darkar screamed as the positive, white magic hit him, tearing apart his shadow powers. Writhing in terrible agony, Lord Darkar tried desperately to escape the attack, but there was no stopping anything that came out of the Winx Club. "No!! No!! _Nooo!!!_"

With one final scream, Lord Darkar of Shadow Haunt vanished, never to be seen again.

"Yes!" Sky grinned widely to himself, but that grin faded slightly when it became apparent that the Realm of Realix had only remained open to them because of the energy that Lord Darkar had received when he had activated the Codex. Without Lord Darkar, the Realm of Realix and the very foundations of Shadow Haunt began to fall apart. In a flicker, the Realm of Realix vanished and they were all returned to Darkar's throne room which was shuttering dangerously as the castle began to collapse.

"Is he gone?" Chatta asked, peering around the room, but there was no sign of Lord Darkar, or the Trix for that matter.

"Yes. Darkar is over," Ms. Faragonda told her, sounding very relieved.

"It is time for us to leave," Concorda told them as another violent tremor ripped through the fortress.

"Come on! This way!" Sky shouted over the noise, heading off down the tunnel towards where they had left the squad ship.

"Let's go!" Bloom urged, as everyone bolted after him. The cavern groaned as large boulders came loose from the ceiling and stalactites dropped down dangerously. Luckily, the squad ship hadn't been hit by too big a rock when they had returned to it, and before Timmy was even properly seated he was punching in the codes for take off.

"You think Amentia got out okay?" Brandon asked at the door to the ship closed.

"I wouldn't worry about her," Layla said again. "I'm sure those Down Landers know what to do in case of a cavern collapse."

"Alright guys, let's go home!" Timmy suggested as the engines kicked into gear. And with one final blast, the ship took off and sped out of Shadow Haunt, just as the fortress collapsed in on itself.

* * *

"So you really remember nothing about Realix?" Timmy asked Riven as they and the rest of their squad sat around waiting for the girls to make an entrance at the prom. They had all returned back home safe and sound, and as soon as they were showered and fed, the boys had headed over to Alfea for prom, which was once again being conveniently held after all the danger had passed.

"I remember entering the portal and then next thing I knew those two were dragging me to my feet," Riven said, jerking his head in Brandon and Helia's direction who were sitting to the left of him. "Between that; totally blank. Why? Did I miss something good?"

His friends all exchanged sly looks, but it was Brandon who answered. "Yeah, Dark Bloom. Even though she was technically evil, she still looked totally hot in that outfit!" Brandon told him enthusiastically. He suddenly felt someone glaring daggers into him, and it turned out to be his prince. "What? It's a compliment, dude."

"And yet strangely, I don't feel flattered in any way," Sky noted. "How would you like it if I said something like that about Stella?"

"I think it'd be great. Then we can have big long conversations that go for hours about how gorgeous she looks."

"Are you talking about me, Brandon?" a voice asked, and everyone looked up to discover that Queen Amentia and Sponsus were standing in front of them, the former of which had been the one to speak. Under Ms. Faragonda's invitation, the witches of Cloud Tower and the trogs of Down Land had been encouraged to attend this year's prom and they had both agreed. A few fairies had disagreed with the arrival of witches at their party, and Brandon had been less than thrilled when Amentia had accepted her invitation. "I'm sorry, Brandon, but there is no way we shall ever be together. Sponsus is my husband and you are just unworthy of me."

"Oh how will I ever live with the rejection?" Brandon pondered aloud in a deadpanned voice. All his friends knew he was being sarcastic, but it didn't register to the two Down Landers.

"You'll just have to learn."

"Thank you very much for inviting us to the party," Sponsus said in his dreamy voice. "Your school's really quite lovely."

"It's not our school," Brandon told him bluntly, earning him an elbow to the ribs from Sky, but Sponsus was so docile that he didn't take offence.

"What a pity. This school glows like the hemian crystals, and I sense the spirits surrounding this place are very peaceful," Sponsus continued to drone on. "And I much prefer being Up World while the sun is away. The moon does not drain our energy so quickly, which will allow us to stay at the party for longer."

"But not too long," Amentia said firmly, much to Brandon's delight. "We still have to return home and complete the post Up World cleansing routine. Spirits knows how many germs and diseases we could pick up in this cess pool. Which reminds me; I've brought gifts for you all."

Amentia snapped her fingers, and in an instant two of her entourage appeared out of nowhere, and they each held three small boxes made out of some kind of clay like substance. Hesitantly, the boys accepted the boxes and after a moments pause and several worried glances at one another, they lifted the lid to the box and peered inside.

"Oh, how sweet," Sky forced a smile as he removed his gift. "You got us all bar soap."

"Let me guess; antibacterial?" Brandon asked.

"Is there anything better?" Amentia questioned, and it took to boys a moment before they realised she was being completely serious. "They're from my private stores and they all have Down Land's royal seal etched into them. They'll work so much better than that body wash the yellow haired wench brought you, Brandon. If you ever want any more, just come to Down Land and I might spare you some."

"How very kind of you."

"Brandon, be nice," Sky growled before looking back at Queen Amentia with another forced smile. "Thank you very much, Your Majesty. It's an honour."

"Well, of course," Amentia said with a flick of her hair. "Now, if you boys excuse me, my husband and I must meet with the headmasters of your schools here to discuss how they intend to honour Down Land in its contribution to the downfall of Lord Darkar."

"Wow," Helia breathed as soon as the two trogs left them.

Riven nodded. "That girl is seven different levels of crazy."

"And Brandon was almost married to her," Timmy reminded everyone.

"Not by choice! As if I would ever choose that pale, self-centred, control freak over my beautiful, loving, fabulous Stella," Brandon said stiffly, but his expression changed dramatically when he caught sight of his girlfriend stepping out of the front entrance of her school with the rest of her friends. "Especially when she looks that good in that dress."

"Snookums!" Stella squealed as soon as she noticed him. With a wide smile, she ran up to him and threw herself into his lap, giggling like a delighted child. Not even noticing the sudden pain in his legs, Brandon wrapped one arm tightly around her waist while the other cupped her face so that he could capture her lips with his. Tilting her head to allow him better access to her lips, Stella returned the kiss with equal passion, not caring at all that they were currently sitting in the middle of all his friends. With her manicured nails digging into his jacket, Stella tormented her boyfriend with a skilled combination of lips, tongue and teeth. Unable to hold back a quiet moan, Brandon subtly rubbed her body against his and he chased her tongue around both their mouths. Her taste was more intoxicating than wine and when he ran his hands across the soft skin that her gorgeous outfit exposed, Brandon utterly forgot about the rest of the world.

That was until he felt a shove from Sky.

"Brandon! For gods sake, you're in public," Sky reminded his squire sharply, but he only managed to distract Brandon long enough so that he could shoot a sly smile at his prince before he returned to ravishing his girlfriend.

"This is exactly why you should have let me bring alcohol," Riven commented to Sky, his expression slightly nauseous as Brandon and Stella continued to express their affection for one another.

"You're just jealous," Stella grinned, tilting her head backwards so she could look at Riven upside-down while Brandon grazed on her neck.

"I think the word you're looking for is traumatised."

"Alright guys, knock it off," Sky put his foot down. "You can find some secluded, dark corner later and then you can amuse yourselves all you want."

"Can I take that as a royal command, my prince?" Brandon asked slyly, causing Sky's ears to turn red. The squire laughed loudly at his friend's prudish nature, but he did stop making out with his girlfriend while the others were around. She did, however, remain seated in his lap.

"This party's going off," Layla noted, looking around her at all the other guests. She had never seen Alfea this crowded before. "I mean, check out this place. Witches, trogs and ogres."

"Oh my!" Bloom grinned, getting amusement out of her comment that the others missed.

"This is the first time that the students from Cloud Tower have attended Alfea's prom ever since the schools both started," Tecna informed everyone. "This is a very auspicious occasion."

"Well, I'm just glad to be spending it with all of you guys. Especially Bloom," Flora smiled sweetly. "It's great to have you back."

"It's great to be back," Bloom told them, her voice sincere. "I would have never been able to fight Lord Darkar's spell without you guys, and it was the combined strength of all of us that ended up defeating him and saving the universe. I could have never done it alone."

"Well, we've always got your back, Bloom. No matter what," Musa promised her.

"Winx Club forever!" Chatta cheered.

"And pixies too!" Amore added.

"And as long as we're all together, no one's gonna be getting their hands on the Ultimate Power on our watch," Stella grinned.

"Speaking of the Ultimate Power, we have a question for Bloom," Timmy suddenly spoke up.

Bloom blinked. "Oh?"

"It's a very serious question," Riven warned her.

"It's practically divided our school," Helia added.

"What we were wondering, was that for that brief moment that you had the Ultimate Power, did you happen find out who would win the ultimate battle; pirates or ninjas?" Brandon asked.

"You're kidding me right?" Bloom asked, staring at the boys in disbelief, but the expression they all wore was one hundred percent serious.

"No, we're not," Sky assured her in a serious voice. "Who would win the ultimate battle; pirates or ninjas?"

"Well no offence, but I think you're ignoring the bigger picture here; Pirate Ninjas. How cool would that be?" Bloom said. The boys all stared at her in total awe as they all suddenly saw the light.

"Pirate Ninjas," Brandon repeated. "Of course. It makes perfect sense."

"The ultimate battle would be won by the ultimate warrior," Timmy agreed. "We have to tell the others."

"And we better do it soon. There have been fist fights over this debate. It's only a matter of time before its out and out war," Sky predicted.

"The universe could be at stake," Riven pointed out.

"Exactly."

"These are the universes future heroes?" Layla asked, her expression one of shock. She'd admit that the boys had earned more of her respect than they had at the start of the year, but when they started going on about pirate ninjas she started to think less of them again.

"Apparently," Musa shrugged.

"Makes you wonder if they're actually learning anything in that school of theirs," Stella smirked at Brandon, who squeezed her tight enough so that she squealed. With a devilish little laugh, Stella jumped to her feet before turning around to drag Brandon to his own. "Now let's party!"

* * *

Sky wasn't sure how it happened, but about two hours after prom had officially kicked off, he found himself trapped in a conversation about laundry detergent with the trog Sponsus. Needless to say that it was Sponsus who did most of the talking since Sky had never actually had to do his own laundry prior to attending Red Fountain, but by the time Queen Amentia marched over to them and demanded that her husband ask her to dance so she could show these Up Worlders how it was done, Sky was willing to go a round with the merged Trix Sisters if it meant not having to endure hearing about another of Sponsus's washing techniques.

With his new found freedom from fabric softeners, Sky slipped through the crowd in search of his girlfriend. When he couldn't spot her amongst all the other fairies, heroes and witches, Sky started checking out more secluded parts of the school. He thought that she might have been hanging out by the wishing well like she had been doing during last years prom, but the person he did find there wasn't the Last Princess of Sparx.

"Good evening, Prince Sky," Avalon greeted formally, his cobalt eyes glancing at the prince for a second before returning to the glass of wine he was swirling in his hand. Normally, there was a strict no alcohol on campus rule that even the teachers had to abide too – although there was still some question into what exactly went into those 'milkshakes' of theirs – but no one was going to deny a man who had spent the last year held hostage in Shadow Haunt a drink.

"Good evening, professor," Sky replied politely, but he couldn't help but feel a little awkward around the paladin. After all, he had spent the last year hating the man who had called himself Avalon and although that man turned out to be an impostor, Sky still felt as cautious around this Avalon as he did around the fake one. Or maybe it had something to do with the tragic end of the impostor Dusja, Sky couldn't be sure. All he knew was that the longer the silence dragged out, the more uncomfortable he became.

Sky was on the edge of making up some made up and probably unbelievable excuse to slink off when Avalon suddenly spoke, making Sky jump slightly.

"You're one of the ones who went to Shadow Haunt, were you not?" Avalon asked, his eyes still fixed on his wine.

"Yes sir," Sky answered formally.

"I see. Did you . . ." Avalon started, but then he stopped so he could reword his question. "While you were down there, you didn't happen to find out what happened to the cloud spirit that had been impersonating me all this year, now did you?"

"You mean Dusja? Yeah, we saw him," Sky answered hesitantly. Avalon looked up at the mention of the cloud spirit's real name, but his expression remained unreadable. For his part, Sky felt rather uncomfortable discussing Lord Darkar's servant with a man who shared the same face of the man in question. The prince was also troubled by the cloud spirit's death and the knowledge of what a horrible life he must have lived, so he paused briefly before adding, "Unfortunately, he died."

A strange emotion flickered across Avalon's face at the news. There was an obvious level of shock which Sky could easily identify, but there was also some other emotion there and it wasn't until Avalon returned his gaze to his drink that Sky recognized it; grief.

"You knew him," Sky said suddenly, causing the paladin to look up again. "Didn't you?"

"Dusja? Yes, I knew him," Avalon answered, his eyes becoming distant. "He was one of the most noble cloud spirits I had ever met. His heart was so pure and his dedication to protecting others from darkness was something to be admired, even though it was most likely the reason for him to venture to Shadow Haunt in the first place. I guess he must have sensed what was growing down there and went to stop it. That's just like Dusja to want to stop evil in all its forms. He had built a very successful career doing just that."

"Until he ran into the Shadow Phoenix," Sky noted quietly.

Avalon fell silent again, staring off into the distance. He took a long drink of his wine before sighing deeply. "Just over twenty years."

"Pardon?"

"Just over twenty years," Avalon said again. "That's how long it's been since Dusja vanished. It was no coincidence that Lord Darkar chose this year to target Bloom and her powers. He's been aware of whom she was and the power that she was destined to wheeled ever since Sparx was destroyed. He had waited decades for everything to fall into place. He had successfully broken Dusja, kidnapped me to steal my identity and Bloom was aware of her power though still inexperienced with it, making it all the more easier for him to manipulate. My own fear now is that there is something else out there, waiting for its perfect chance to strike."

Avalon fell silent at that stage, and Sky had no idea of how to respond it something like that. Here was a man who had had his life stolen by a dear friend who everyone believed had vanished when in actual fact was being brutally tortured by Lord Darkar, and now he was predicting more danger in their future. What could an adolescent teenager say to something like that?

Suddenly, Avalon snapped out of his trance and looked over at the prince with a soft smile that would make his female students swoon. "But you shouldn't spend your night listening to an old man like me. You are young, so go and enjoy yourself. These moments are fleeting – even in the long life of a paladin – so you must embrace it while you can, and I'm sure that your girlfriend is expecting at least one dance out of you tonight."

"Yeah, I just gotta find her. Goodnight, professor."

"Goodnight."

Sky turned and walked away a few steps, but then he suddenly stopped and looked back over his shoulder at the paladin. "Just so you know, Dusja died saving me and my friends from a surprise attack by a shadow monster."

The only response was a small flutter of a smile at the corner of Avalon's lips, but Sky could tell that that little bit of information was greatly appreciated by him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

* * *

Even though all enemies had been defeated, there was still one final battle that needed to be fought on the grounds of Alfea. Sliding on his gloves and placing his goggles over his eyes, Timmy shot a challenging grin over at Tecna whose blood was pulsing with the fire of competition.

"Watch out Timmy," Tecna warned, her voice serious and her mind focused. "Last time I played this game I set a new record."

"Well I like a good challenge," Timmy admitted to her, but just because they were now technically dating, didn't mean that he was going to go easy on her.

"Go Tecna!" Digit cheered as the video game started up. Tecna was good at video games, but there were students at Red Fountain who treated gaming like a sport, and Timmy was one of them so that the end result was incredibly close. However, there could only be one winner, and to Tecna's great surprise, it wasn't her.

"Well Timmy. I'm impressed," Tecna admitted, sliding her goggles off. "I thought I knew most of the moves in that game, but I never seen that move where you blasted a fire element into the ground and caused magma to explode out of the ground."

"Not many people know the codes to do that, but it's easy to learn," Timmy told her, removing his own goggles and running his hand through his hair. "I've got a whole bunch of cheat sheets back in my room at Windox."

"You'll have to teach them to me sometime," Tecna said coyly, and Timmy suddenly had a mental image of having Tecna alone in his room back at home, and the thoughts that entered his mind after that was enough to make his ears turn a light shade of red. Timmy coughed nervously at the thought, but that didn't stop a smile from creeping across his face.

"I'd teach you, but then I'd have to kill you," he joked, and Tecna's turquoise eyes twinkled in amusement.

"Oh really?"

"Afraid so."

"Surely there must be some way to change your mind?" Tecna pondered, edging closer to him.

"There might be," Timmy told her, his eyes flicking between her eyes and her lips. Finally, unable to keep up this little game of theirs, Timmy moved forward and kissed her boldly, to which Tecna responded eagerly. Wrapping her arms around Timmy's neck, Tecna moved her lips against his with the passion that had built up between them over the last two years. To an outsider, the kiss may have seemed rather tame – especially when compared to the public displays of affection Brandon and Stella put on – but for Timmy and Tecna, the kiss was more mind-blowing than the latest technological advances.

"Did that sway you mind?" Tecna asked slyly when the pair had parted.

Timmy shrugged offhandedly. "I might be tempted to spare your life."

Despite Timmy's casual response, Tecna grinned. "I'm the only one who actually understands you when you start talking about programs and computes. How would you manage without me?"

"I wouldn't," Timmy admitted with a laugh, and with wide smile he pulled Tecna in to another affectionate kiss.

* * *

Brandon could not believe how much of a fool he had been all year. Here he was dancing with the most beautiful girl to ever grace the halls of Alfea – in his opinion – and he had almost thrown that all away so carelessly. Well, as long as there was breathe in his body, Brandon vowed to never to let himself take Stella for grated again.

"You look beautiful, Snookums," Brandon told her as she spun her across the dance floor. He was well aware that most of the people lining the dance floor were watching them, and with Stella looking as radiant as she was, Brandon couldn't blame them.

Her eyes shinning merrily, Stella gave him a dazzling smile that made Brandon feel light headed. "And you look handsome, Sugar Bear."

Grinning widely, Brandon spun Stella around again, delighting in the way her blonde hair fluttered out behind her like a beautiful, golden wave. The scent of her perfume tickled his nose and made his mind swim and he still marvelled at how soft her skin was as he rubbed his fingers against hers while they danced. But when his fingers brushed across something metallic, Brandon shifted his eyes from hers down to her hands. "You're wearing the ring I gave you again."

"Of course I am," Stella said, glossing over the fact that she hadn't been wearing it since their fight. "After all, I love it."

"And I love you," Brandon told her again before kissing her soundly. The dancing forgotten, Stella stood up on tippy-toes and threw her arms around his neck. With an undisguised groan of satisfaction, Stella pressed her body firmly against his and bit down on his bottom lip. Pain translated into pleasure, and Brandon wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and lifted her feet off the ground. Stella's tongue was taunting and teasing and always just out of Brandon's reach, but he would never give up the chase. Not when the prize was so great.

The cut of her dress gave Brandon access to the soft skin at the small of her back and he got strange feeling of satisfaction when he once again realised that the span of his hand reached all the way across her back. Stella's fingers had found their way into his hair and her nails scraped against the tender skin of his scalp, spending bolts of pleasure shooting down his spine. His lips tingled as the pressure on them grew to be borderline too much, but he wouldn't stop even for a whole year of examination passes.

He was considering suggesting to Stella that they sneak off and find that dark corner Sky had suggested earlier when an alarming roaring sound filled his ears and the couple found themselves in the centre of a spinning vortex of air. Brandon's first thought was of Stormy, but his panic dropped a little when he saw a familiar flash of violet and burgundy circulating around them.

"Hello," Dominique greeted as soon as she slowed enough to be seen. Her sea grey eyes shone with malicious amusement when she saw the irritation in Brandon's face at being interrupted like that, and she looked like she was really enjoying herself.

"Hello Dominique," Brandon replied, barely able to keep the acid out of his voice. "What a delight it is to see you again."

"I know," Dominique grinned with the wicked confidence only a witch could properly pull off. "I just came to show you my jeans. They look good, don't they?"

"Very nice," Brandon agreed, a sly smile spreading across his face at the memory of the last time he saw them. "The only shame is that they cover your lovely legs."

"All the better to torment you boys with," Dominique informed him before her grey eyes shifted to Stella. The witch's expression instantly changed to a slightly defensive one as she regarded the fairy, but Dominique was a smart girl and she knew she was a guest in this school, so she kept her tongue civil. "Congratulations on defeating Lord Darkar. The universe owes you and your friends a debt of gratitude."

"No big. That's just what we fairies do," Stella told her with a flick of her golden hair. Dominique's eyes turned stony and the muscles in her jaw tightened in an effort to keep her mouth shut. Realising the that the witch didn't find Stella's sense of humour to be at all funny, Stella fell on her fall back subject of conversation; fashion. "Oh, cute boots."

"They're dragon hind," Dominique informed her, glancing down at the boots that her friend Calleigh had finally agreed to let her borrow.

"Cute," Stella said again. "Not that I would ever buy a pair, but they're not bad . . . for a witch."

"Thank you," Dominique replied in such a way that it was impossible to tell if she was insulted or not. With cold eyes, the witch regarded Stella's outfit and she was silent for a frightening amount of time before making a comment. "Your dress is very nice . . . for a fairy."

"So you'd never be caught dead in it?" Stella asked with a sly grin that the witch surprisingly enough returned.

"Exactly."

"There you are," a voice breathed, and a second later Lex stumbled up to them. He looked exhausted, as if he had just run a marathon and since he was Dominique's boyfriend that probably wasn't far from the truth. Dominique stilled as she glanced at him and then, moving so quickly that if you had blinked you would have missed it, she vanished in a flash, leading Lex off in another chase. Lex groaned loudly. "She's been doing that to me all night."

With a tragic sigh, Lex jogged off in the direction the blur had vanished. He'd never be able to catch her unless she wanted him too, but the short Red Fountain student would never stop chasing her.

"They're a weird couple," Stella commented after they had left.

"They're weird people," Brandon reminded her. But they couldn't stand around in the middle of the dance floor discussing the oddities of people, so at Brandon's invitation, the pair started to dance again. After all, the night was still young and that darkened corner wasn't going anywhere.

* * *

Even though romance in the air and end of year hook-ups were occurring in every pocket of the school, there was one pairing that no one could have anticipated.

Grasping each others hand across the table, Codatorta strained against the unyielding strength of the ogre Knut as they participated in a traditional arm wrestle. The pride of both Red Fountain and Alfea were on the line, and neither faculty member was willing to let their school down.

Finally, with a painful sounding bang, Codatorta overpowered Knut and sent his big, yellow fist slamming down onto the table.

"Yeah! I beat the ogre!" Codatorta cheered loudly while Knut sulked. Standing not far from the two of them, Riven shook his head at the way his professor was carrying on. Wasn't it Codatorta who was always lecturing him about bad sportsmanship?

"Can you believe the two of them?" Riven asked Jared, who he had somehow ended up with. "It's pathetic."

"Even more pathetic than you standing here when you'd rather be off with Musa?" Jared asked boldly. Riven shot his classmate a hard look, but Jared refused to be intimidated by it. Jared had accepted the fact that Musa had feelings for someone else, but he wasn't about to stand around and let Riven hesitate over something that plenty of other guys would love to have. "Why don't you just ask her to dance?"

"I can't ask her to dance 'cause I can't dance," Riven informed him with a filthy look that indicated that there was no way the journalist was going to change his mind about it. But even as Jared tried to construct an argument in his mind, Layla put her own plan in motion to get Musa what she wanted for prom. Twirling herself around until she was standing right in front of the two specialists, she reached out and grabbed an unsuspecting Riven by the wrist.

"C'mere!" Layla ordered, dragging Riven forward. Completely unprepared, Riven helplessly followed her lead, dropping the can of drink he had in his hand in the process. His violet eyes turned slightly panicked when Layla released him and flung him directly into Musa's awaiting arms on the dance floor. Her fingers intertwined with his and Riven felt his pulse quicken, but whether it was from how close his face was to hers or from what he knew Layla had dragged him out here to do, he couldn't tell.

"I can't dance," Riven admitted quickly, hoping beyond hope that she would take pity on him and let him go. But instead all she did was laugh.

"I'll teach you," Musa offered, pushing him backwards so that they weren't right in the centre of the dance floor. Once they had their own space, Musa place one of Riven's hands on her hip and then place her free hand on his shoulder. Even though the pair had only three points of contact, Musa could tell that Riven's body was completely tense. "Just relax."

"I am," Riven assured her, even though he was as anxious as a person who was going into surgery without anaesthetic might be.

"Yeah, I don't believe that for a second."

"I had a feeling you'd say something like that."

"C'mon! It'll be fun!" Musa grinned, leading him off in a dance. Riven might have been actually been pretty good at dancing given all the footwork he had had to learn with his sword work and thievery, but he was that nervous and uncomfortable that any chance he had was ripped to shreds. He kept tripping over his own feet and stepping on Musa's, and nothing he did seemed to make it any easier. "Riven, don't look at your feet."

"Why not?" Riven asked, looking Musa in the eye. It made perfect sense to him that if he watched his feet, it would lessen the chance on him stepping on them.

"Because if you look at the ground, you'll end up on it," Musa repeated what her dance teacher had told her when she was nine years old. "Just chillax. You're doing fine."

"And you're lying. I'm doing horribly," Riven said even though it was bleeding obvious for anyone with eyes. Sliding out of Musa's grasp, Riven made his escape from the dance floor. "Just go back to dancing with Layla."

"Riven!" Musa protested, chasing after him. She didn't want to dance with Layla. She wanted him to stop running away from her.

"Go on, you'll have more fun with her," Riven waved off, moving away from the crowed dance floor.

"Riven!" Musa said again, catching up with him and grabbing hold of his hand. Riven tried to slip out of her grasp once again, but she held on and tugged him back with more force than Riven had been anticipating. Stumbling backwards, Riven was pulled back around until his body collided softly into her. She kept a firm hold of his hand to stop him from running off again, though there really wasn't any need for it. Her proximity and blazing navy eyes were enough to keep Riven frozen in place and clear his mind of all common sense. "Now listen you, I've – "

Whatever she was going to say was silenced when Riven acted on impulse and pressed his lips to hers. Not expecting that in the slightest, Musa inhaled sharply and tensed which Riven took as a negative reaction to his advance and he instantly recoiled, an apologetic look on his face.

"'M sorry," Riven stammered, cringing at his own stupidity. He was so caught up in his foolishness that he didn't realised that Musa's navy eyes had glazed over in pleasure and she frozen as if in some delightful trance. "I didn't mean to . . . I-I-I dunno wha – "

This time, it was Musa who cut Riven off. Grabbing his head, Musa dragged his face down to her level and pressed her mouth firmly to his. Riven blinked and stared at her cross-eyed for a moment, more than a bit shocked at Musa's uncharacteristic boldness, but desire quickly spilled over disbelief and Riven found himself drowning in pleasure as something that had been waiting to be ignited ever since they had first laid eyes on each other burst into flames. And he sure as hell wasn't about to fight it.

Wrapping his arms round her waist, Riven pulled Musa up close to him, delighting in the way that her tiny body fitted so perfectly against his. Everything about her was completely intoxicating. The way she tasted. The way she smelt. The way her skin felt against his. Everything about her was enough to completely cloud his mind. He had thought that Darcy had been addictive, but when compared to Musa, the witch had the addictiveness of a breath-mint.

At some point Riven had backed Musa up against a wall – or she had dragged him back into it, Riven really couldn't remember – allowing him to just lean right into her an explore her in a way that he had been wanting to do for so long but for some stupid reason kept denying himself the pleasure. One of Musa's hands had found its way under the back of his shirt while his fingertips dared to touch her dark, midnight locks. He knew that Stella didn't like Musa's pigtails, but Riven had always been rather fond of them and now he knew that her hair was just as soft as he had always imagined it to be.

"Not bad," Riven panted when the need for oxygen just became too much for them to ignore. Resting his forehead against hers, Riven stared down into her eyes, a rather foolish grin on his face. "For a pixie."

"Thanks," Musa gasped, her eyes sparkling cheekily. "I've had better."

"Yeah right," Riven grinned, dropping his face to recapture her lips, to which Musa was more that eagre to comply to.

* * *

Moonlight wasn't the best light for drawing, but when Helia saw how breathtakingly stunning Flora looked in the silver light, Helia felt compelled to capture that image forever in the form of a sketch. His mother used to always scold him and tell him that he was going to ruin his eyesight whenever she caught him reading, writing or drawing in poor light, but there were certain moments when he felt obligated to do one or more of these things and they couldn't be postponed until he found suitable lighting.

Flora, for her part, endured his desire to sketch her happily, but as time went on, she started to become bored with modelling and began to wish Helia would find some other way to spend his time with her. She was still a bit shy about expressing her feelings with him, but the memory of how his lips felt against hers was still fresh in her mind and she was eagre to relive that experience.

"Why don't you put that pencil down and come watch the moon with me, Helia?" Flora suggested, looking back over her shoulder at him. Helia lifted his wide cobalt eyes from his sketch and locked them onto Flora's shinning green ones. A foolish looking smile spread across his lips as he held her gaze and was utterly captivated, so much so that Flora got the feeling that he wasn't even conscious of the fact that his pencil slipped out of his fingers and dropped to the ground.

Forgetting his sketch, Helia got to his feet and made his way over to stand directly behind Flora, whose shyness had returned so she quickly turned her gaze back to the moon. But she couldn't stop herself from smiling when Helia snaked his hands around her waist and pulled her close.

"It's beautiful," Flora said, looking up at the moon.

"Yes," Helia agreed, but he never once lifted his eyes skywards. Brushing Flora's hair aside, Helia dropped his head and lightly kissed her exposed neck, inhaling the scent of jasmine that surrounded the girl. She shivered under his lips, but he felt her lean back into him, warming immediately into his touch. Growing bolder, Helia began to suck on Flora's neck with more intensity until a light mark bruised itself across her bronzed skin, but no matter how tender the bruise was, Flora didn't flinch away from it.

"Helia," Flora whispered, causing Helia to lift his slightly glazed over eyes to look into hers. Gently, Helia cupped one side of her face and tenderly rubbed his thumb across her lower lip. A small, pleading sound escaped Flora's throat and not wanting to deny her anything, Helia quickly dropped his face to cover her mouth. At Helia's gentle prompting, Flora twisted in his arms without breaking the kiss so that she was now facing him. Backed up against the pillar, Flora let herself get completely engulfed by Helia's body and she in turn melted hers against his. Flora's hands developed a life of their own and started exploring Helia's body. Through her fingertips she was able to memorise just how powerful his chest felt, the way he shivered when she ran her hand up his spine and the strange sense of pleasure she got when she lightly groped his behind. She was slightly aware of the fact that he was tracing the curves of her body with his own hands, but her all her mental awareness was clouded by the taste of Helia's lips.

Panting, Helia regretfully pulled back and started into Flora's eyes which were glazed like his. Her lips her wet and swollen, but that didn't stop her from stretching herself upwards to tenderly kiss him one more time.

* * *

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous," Sky sighed to himself. He had searched every inch of this party, and although he had managed to grab glimpses of all his other friends – whose hormones all seemed to be going crazy for some reason – he was yet to spot one fiery red hair on Bloom's head. He had seen a blur which he assumed was Dominique and he had hoped that maybe she be able to use her directional crystal to locate Bloom for him, but he gave up on that idea when it dawned on him that there was no way he was going to be able to slow her down long enough to talk to her.

So, he was forced to do it the old fashioned way; look.

"Bloom?" Sky called as he pushed his way between two Red Fountain boys. "Anyone seen Bloom?"

"Nope," Bourne answered with a shake of his head. "Sorry man."

Suppressing a growl, Sky stalked through the crowd, his eyes darting back and forth as he looked for his girlfriend. Finally, he was able to spot someone he recognised. It wasn't Bloom, but it was someone who could help; Lockette. "Where's Bloom?"

"I don't know," Lockette admitted, even though she was Bloom's bonded pixie and the Pixie of Portal. "I haven't seen her all night."

"Stella!" Sky quickly called as she and Brandon happened to be dancing by. "I really need to take to Bloom. Do you know where she is?"

"Actually, Bloom needs to talk to you, Sky," Stella told him as she and Brandon paused in their dancing so that they could talk to him. Her honey eyes had that knowing glow that she had been directing at him ever since Realix and she was wearing that shrewd little smile of hers that kind of annoyed Sky for some reason. It was almost as if he could hear her silently congratulation herself for introducing him to Bloom.

"That's right. She's right over there," Brandon said, nodding his head in Bloom's direction. "She's been waiting for you."

"Huh?" Sky grunted, looking behind him and finally he spotted his girlfriend. She was standing alone – something he had come to realise was something that Bloom did from time to time – and the pale blue dress she was wearing had blended into the silver moonlight perfectly, which was why it had taken him so long for Sky to find her.

Relieved to have finally found his quarry after such a long search, Sky wasted no time heading over to her, but he was halfway there when he suddenly faulted in his step. He hadn't really spoken with Bloom since Realix, and he wasn't really sure how she had taken his confession of love. Sure, it had returned her to the light and ended up saving the universe, but Bloom had never had a chance to reply to him. That gap had allowed countless dark thoughts to enter Sky's mind – what if she didn't love him in return? What if he scared her off? What if she suddenly turned around and said 'sorry Sky. I was just hoping for a little bit of fun, you know. I don't wonna get involved in anything serious just yet so maybe I'll look you up in a couple of years when I'm ready to settle down. See ya' – and he was starting to get a bit panicky.

Trying to outrun his fear, Sky broke into a jog to reach Bloom who was standing with her rabbit, Kiko, before his nerve gave out.

"Hey! There you are," Sky grinned in order to cover his nervousness. Kiko was gurgling happily as Bloom stroked his stomach, but all of Sky attention rested solely on Bloom.

"Hey, I'm glad you found me Sky," Bloom smiled warmly, chasing away his fears. But those fears returned when she added, "We need to talk about what happened in Realix."

Sky's heart pounded loudly in his ears, and he was so nervous that he didn't even notice Kiko start to hover in the air, confirming once and for all that the little rabbit from earth was actually a pixie pet.

"Er, do you remember what I said to you?" Sky asked, his legs suddenly feeling weak. After all, the only being outside his family he had ever said he had loved was Lady, and she had replied by turning around to bite an itch that was occurring near the base of her tail.

Bloom's reaction, however, was nothing like that. "Of course I remember. What you said to me was totally sweet."

Sky was utterly relieved, but he still wasn't sure how she felt about him admitting that he loved her. Swallowing hard, Sky pushed forward in a situation that scared him more than he cared to admit. "So then . . . um . . . you like what I said? Using the L word and all?"

Bloom smiled softly, but not in a patronising or pitiful way like Sky had been dreading, and when she spoke, Sky knew that she was being utterly honest and not just saying it because she had. "I love you too."

Filled with more delight than Sky could put into word, Sky abandoned the idea of speech and simply moved in to wrap his arm around her waist and pull her into a kiss. The second his lips touched hers, Bloom's bones seemed to have turned to jelly and Sky got the impression that she would have swooned if she didn't have him to help support her. Running his tongue along her lower lip, Sky tried to memorise the way she felt against him, the way her lips tasted and exactly what her perfume smelt like. Sky had grown up believing that he was never going to have the freedom to fall in love with a person and be with them. He had been committed to a loveless engagement to Diaspro without any of his own input, dashing any chance of him to experience the trails of romance and dating that he had seen so many people go through. It was still a thrill for him to be given the chance to find out what that was like, but to find a person who loved him in return . . .

Sky could not believe his luck.

"Sky!" Timmy suddenly called, making the prince curse his luck. "Bloom! Get over here for pictures!"

Pulling back from Bloom, Sky glared back at Timmy. That guy couldn't have picked worse timing if he had tried. The only consolation Sky felt was that Helia and Riven looked just as annoyed from being pulled away from their private moments with their girlfriends as he was. "Do you think we should go?" Sky asked.

"Sure," Bloom grinned, forgetting her annoyance.

"I was kind hoping you'd say no," Sky admitted.

Bloom feigned shock and outrage, but the smile tugging at her corners of her lips gave away her jesting. "Why Sky, you shall set the neighbours tongues a-wagging with that kind of talk."

"That's the plan," Sky grinned slyly, and to his great delight, she returned it.

But no matter how tempting in might be, they wouldn't just blow off their friends like that. Under Timmy's direction, they had all lined up and were shuffling into frame. Musa and Riven stood furthest to the left with Brandon and Stella to their right. Flora and Helia were next to them and Tecna stood furthest to the right, waiting for Timmy to get out from behind the camera and join her.

"Closer guys," Timmy directed. "That's great."

"C'mon," Sky said, seizing Bloom's hand in his. "Let's go!"

With a soft giggle for Bloom, the couple ran over to their friends that each valued and loved beyond words. Although people always assumed that Bloom was the leader of the Winx Club and Sky was the leader of his squad, the truth was that neither of them ever considered themselves as leaders. They knew that each of their friends had their own unique skills and quirks that they bought to the group and without them, neither Bloom nor Sky would have been as successful as they had been over the last two years.

They were who they were because of their friends, and they wouldn't change that for the world.

"Everybody smile. This one's for the year book," Timmy told them before running around to stand beside Tecna. Layla ran in at the last moment and threw her arms around Musa and Riven's shoulders, earning her a delighted laugh from Musa and an odd look from Riven.

"Wait for us!" Bloom cried, and just as she and Sky ran in front of the camera, the flash went off, resulting in a photo of just her and Sky blocking out the rest of their friends in the background. There were plenty of other photos from that night including a few extreme close ups of the pixies, some shots of some witches and one or two of a few members of the Winx Club doing some slightly suggestive things with fruit, but there was one photo that all the boys all kept copies of.

They weren't sure which fairy had taken the photo, but she had just snapped it without much posing, giving it a more candid look that some of the other photos lacked. The five of them were leaning up against one of the stone railings that lined Alfea's front porch. Helia was furthest to the left, with his arm resting on Riven's shoulder, who for once in his life didn't look agitated or scowling. Brandon was in the middle, his mouth slightly open since he had been talking when the photo was taken, but there was still a smile on his face which radiated the squire's youthful, upbeat attitude on life. Sky stood to the left of him, looking as if he was trying not to grin too widely at whatever Brandon was staying. Timmy stood furthest to the right and judging from the wide, unbridled grin on his face that exposed him teeth, he was laughing.

It was a simple photo, but to the five of them, it was invaluable and spoke volumes. They were five strangers – a prince, a pacifist, a lowly squire, a thief and a computer nerd – from four different realms with seemingly nothing in common, and yet they had all somehow formed a friendship that had deepened into a love that couldn't have been stronger if they were blood related. They had had their disagreements and times that had tested their friendship, but at the end of it all they still considered themselves as brothers, and they couldn't imagine their lives without one another.

**The End.**

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_(1) The inconsistency of what the monsters are made up of in the show really annoyed me. One episode they're just made up of shadows and vanish whenever they're vanquished and the next they're made up of flesh and bone and leave carcases behind them when they die. I went with the shadow idea because I didn't want the boys getting all bloodied and dirty_

_(2) I don't get why everyone was so worried about keeping the pieces of the Codex away from Lord Darkar and why they fretted when they lost them if they had a spare key the whole time. Poor Lord Darkar had to go to incredible effort to get those for pieces of the Codex when all he had to do was find some hair pins and brooches _

_(3) In the Rai version of this episode they showed Bloom having flashbacks of her relationship with Sky that 4kids didn't end up including in their version of the episode. And now I'm stealing that idea off Rai _

_Oh my god! It's done! It's finally freakin' done! I feel like I need a holiday or something after that. But hey, a massive thanks too everyone who came along with me on this story, especially Darev for catching all the horrible spelling that slipped past me. Massive love to everyone who ever reviewed to this and I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it. _

_Love ya all!_

_Cheers, tears-in-rain_


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